This week as we pause from our labors, we offer our thanks to God. Not just for the positive things in each of our lives, for the things that we have and are. But also for the things we don’t have to face or suffer, thanks to our wisdom and prudence in getting born right here in America. That was a good call, people. Pat yourselves on the back. Bravo. Encore.

To quote the 1984 song focusing on famine in Ethiopia, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”:

There’s a world outside your window.
And it’s a world of dread and fear.
Where the only water flowing
Is the bitter sting of tears.

And the Christmas bells that ring there
Are the clanging chimes of doom.
Well tonight thank God it’s them
Instead of you.

Of course it isn’t Christmas yet. It’s not even Advent. And the victims aren’t the Christians of Ethiopia, but Syria. So maybe we’ll ask the pop stars to sing “Do They Know It’s Black Friday?” As we plan our shopping, believers cling to life in a land where the Apostles taught, while most of our ancestors worshiped idols in some dank forest.

Our NATO Frenemy Turkey

It’s a bleak time for men of good will. Our NATO frenemy Turkey has unleashed gangs of vicious Islamist radicals on Northeast Syria — on the very people who lost 11,000 soldiers as U.S. allies against ISIS. These jihadis are marching house to house, hunting Christians, Yezidis, and other “infidels.” Civilians whom Turkish President Erdogan had the gall to label “terrorists” at a White House press conference.

Of course, there are terrorists present. But they’re Turkey’s allies and puppets, jihadi radicals linked to al Qaeda and veterans of ISIS who shrugged and switched from one terrorist gang to another. And they’re unleashing terror on everyone who doesn’t support sharia.

Hunting Yazidis Again

For instance, the Yazidis, every Islamist’s favorite whipping boy and rape target. The imams define them as “pagans” or claim that they worship Satan. So their men are fair game for murder, their women for sex trafficking. Read the North Press Agency of Syria’s report.

The Yazidis are … afraid to return to their seized areas, according to the armed forces groups, the Yazidis are considered as infidels and are doomed to be killed. … [T]he Turkish-backed armed opposition groups have forced the Yazidi people in Afrin who remained in the region to convert into Islam, in addition to kidnappings and inhuman acts against them.

The Neocons’ Favorite Terrorist Army

This is the “ceasefire” which Presidents Trump and Erdogan announced with so much fanfare, which Erdogan’s Arabic tweets more honestly called a “jihad” led by the “armies of Muhammad.” The “terrorists” whom Erdogan claimed Turkey was fighting alongside America? They include thousands of helpless civilian refugees. The Washington Examiner tells the tale:

Turkish-backed militias on Saturday attacked a Syrian refugee camp guarded by Kurdish and Arab fighters, an on-scene aid worker said.

“The refugee camp is burning,” said David Eubank, an American whose Free Burma Rangers provide humanitarian relief in war zones. “We are here giving medical help as we can,” he told the Washington Examiner.

“The Refugee Camp is Burning”

Eubank is a Christian missionary and aid worker who risks his neck on the front lines wherever the Church is persecuted. Below see the video he posted of the Nov. 23 attack.

On Nov. 23, Turkish/FSA forces attacked Ein Issa, #Syria. The refugee camp is burning. We’re giving medical help as we can and will report more tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/0KI7ZT7qeH

— David Eubank (@DaveEubankFBR) November 24, 2019

Again, per The Washington Examiner:

The assault took place on the same day that Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise visit to Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, where he met with Kurdish leaders and addressed U.S. troops.

“The American people will also never forget or fail to honor the service and sacrifice of the brave Kurdish fighters who stood shoulder to shoulder with us in the fight against ISIS,” Pence said Saturday.

If this administration remembers that sacrifice, it has a funny way of showing it. Right now the whole region’s being overrun by Islamist thugs. Their “Free Syrian Army?” It’s the same group Sen. John McCain and the GOP neocons labeled “moderate rebels” and wanted America to put in charge of all of Syria.

The very same neocons now are screaming at Donald Trump for letting the FSA invade. Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of the catastrophic Iraq war (which led to three fourths of Iraqi Christians suffering ethnic cleansing) wrote a bizarre op-ed. In it, he condemned the Obama administration for not putting the FSA in Damascus, and the Trump administration for not stopping the FSA now. Oh well, stopped clocks get it right twice a day.

Bringing the Troops Home … to a Different Part of Syria

Trump’s decision to “bring the troops home” was a catastrophe. There’s no longer any question about it. First of all, the troops aren’t home. Trump simply moved them from where they were doing something useful and good (deterring a jihad attack) a few miles down the road. Now they’re guarding oil wells which the U.S. doesn’t own and has absolutely no right to control. Meanwhile ISIS’s ideological brethren are ethnically cleansing Christians and other “infidels,” while European governments debate which ISIS fighters to welcome back onto welfare.

Ceasefire, or Killing Fields?

Meanwhile the “ceasefire” is a morbid joke, a brutal snuff farce. So CNBC reports.

Heavy fighting has continued despite a cease-fire deal in northern Syria after Turkey vowed to clear SDF fighters from a 20-mile-deep “safe zone” between the border cities of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn in October. A cease-fire was brokered by Russia with Turkey to end fighting in late October. But the war never stopped, according to sources on the ground.

According to the United Nations, more than 200,000 people have been displaced since the invasion last month. Only around 15,000 have made it to northern Iraq, while the rest search for clean water and shelter in Syria. Aid in many areas is nonexistent. Those displaced fear an approaching winter and the future of their autonomous region, which has enjoyed a brief period of peace since kicking out the Islamic State.

More Christian Funerals

The Syriac Military Forces is the Christian militia that helped beat ISIS. Today it’s scrambling to defend historic Christian villages from al Qaeda’s invasion, backed by our NATO “ally” Turkey. It’s also busy holding Christian funerals such as this one.

The Syrian Christians of the North East and the Syrian Democratic Forces mourning the killing of Said Abdulahad from Syriac Military Council. Saed was killed by Turkey and its jihadist proxies while defending his homeland In Tal Tamr. pic.twitter.com/vJREVrraag

— Elham Ahmad (@ElhamAhmadSDC) November 23, 2019

Cleansing the Infidels

The Independent (U.K.) reported on the scope and horror of the conflict we call a “ceasefire.”

Donald Trump declared from the White House that a ceasefire here was “holding very well”. For those living in the path of Turkey’s offensive, it was as if he was describing an alternate reality.

“What is he talking about? There is no ceasefire. You can hear the sound of helicopters and bombing right now,” says Dr Hassan Amin, the beleaguered director of Tal Tamr hospital.

…

Many in this diverse region of northeast Syria fear Turkey aims to dramatically alter its ethnic make-up. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has promised to resettle 1 million Syrians displaced from other parts of the country in his proposed “safe zone”. To carry out the job, he has sent a patchwork fighting force of Syrian rebels, many of whom have a record of atrocities and have openly threatened to kill “infidels” – a reference to non-Muslims.

Gruesome videos have emerged of Turkish-backed fighters summarily executing Kurdish civilians as they captured a large area between the border cities of Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad.

Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream, and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration.