Chaldean Patriarch urges US not to attack Syria

The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which is based in Iraq and has eparchies (dioceses) in Syria, told the Missionary Service News Agency that the United States should not attack Syria.

“What justice will be done for the Syrians with air raids?” said Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako, echoing comments he made a week earlier to the Fides news agency. “Nobody knows the black hole the country is entering but us, the Iraqis: we entered that tunnel before them and, alas, we are still in it.”

“Why [did] those pretending to act for the Syrian people’s own good not intervene beforehand, with diplomatic means?” he continued. “It seems to me to hear once again the very same words and declarations that were made before the military intervention in Iraq. Then years have passed, and, believe me, we have seen little freedom and democracy.”

Referring to the US invasion of Iraq, he added:

We already lived, experienced, and suffered everything that is now happening in other parts of the region. I ask everybody to learn from our mistakes and our sufferings, for dialogue is the only possible way and this way must be kept open.

Syria is already following this path. But an armed foreign intervention would only make things worse and could affect the country and the entire region in unpredictable ways …

If one really wants to stop the massacre of the Syrian people, one must first of all stop sending weapons and ammunition to the warring parties and force the regional powers, which are fuelling the conflict, to find a solution. They are putting the Syrians’ lives at stake for unacceptable interests and ambitions. All this has to be stopped with politics not with more bombs.
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=18960