OPINION:
Things are not boding well for our current and former allies, particularly those of Christian faith, in light of questionable decisions by the Obama administration. For example, a brutal crackdown began just before Christmas against Montagnard Christian believers in Vietnam who refuse to join communist-controlled churches. It started in Gialai province (formerly Pleiku) with the banning of the celebration of the birth of Christ, and then progressed to brutal beatings, arrests and imprisonments of some and terrorism of others. Several dozen families managed to escape and flee to Cambodia to seek refuge. Some were captured by Cambodian and Vietnamese police and sent back to Vietnam to be jailed or else simply disappeared. A dozen or so were rescued by personnel from the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and are pending resettlement in a third country. More than 100 others who fled persecution much earlier languish in a UNHCR camp in Thailand.
Two weeks ago the UNHCR representative in Cambodia announced that he had set up a meeting with the American ambassador to see if the United States would resettle the Montagnards here. But the ambassador denied the meeting. The Montagnards, our former allies, lost more than half of their adult population fighting for the United States during the Vietnam War — and 40 years later their families are still being punished. Dozens of others are still hiding in Cambodia’s jungles, where they face malnourishment, malaria and other illnesses. President Obama encouraged a flood of illegal alien “dreamers” to come to the United States from south of the border, and rewarded them for doing so, but won’t come to the aid of former allies.
This administration outed Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani physician who provided intelligence that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, and as a consequence he was imprisoned to appease the Islamists. This administration has also failed to provide weapons, more sophisticated equipment and other support to enable our former allies, such as the Kurds, and other freedom fighters to effectively battle the Islamic terrorists.
Now the administration is acquiescing to concessions demanded by the terroristic Iranian regime to achieve an agreement on nuclear proliferation at any cost, endangering the security of U.S. allies in the Middle East. Iran has never lived up to previous agreements and there is no reason to believe it will this time. Many suspect that the administration’s real purpose is to enhance Mr. Obama’s historical image rather than support our allies. No wonder our allies are losing faith in us.
MICHAEL BENGE
Falls Church
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