The more important question for me as a missionary who has just returned from Kurdistan is why do so many Christians blindly and routinely support politicians who are obsessed and addicted to war in the very region that was the cradle of Christianity? In addition, why have we supported a destructive and violent policy that has resulted in the deaths, hardships, and displacement of so many Christians—not to mention millions of people from other faiths who are created in the image of God?

Pulling a few troops out of Syria recently didn’t suddenly cause the Turks to invade the Kurds in North Eastern Syria. Our government’s policy of regime change in Syria predetermined that outcome when it intentionally weakened the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. It was the policy of regime change, and the United States funding of Turkey’s enemies in Northern Syria, that made a Turkish invasion inevitable.

Turkey should be forced to pay a heavy price for this move, but at the same time we need to be clear as to exactly which strategies caused this foreign policy fiasco. It is certain that it was not caused simply by pulling a few of the remaining troops out of Syria (the Kurds are angry about the withdrawal, but they weren’t surprised by the move).

The real catalyst for Turkey’s invasion, however, is America’s addiction and obsession with fighting illegal, unconstitutional, and secret wars funded by our intelligence agencies. So, the blame for this is squarely on the shoulders of the Bush and Obama administrations. The former reinstituted the policy of regime change in the Middle East, and the latter branded and franchised it. Trump may have bumbled his way through the withdrawal, but it was not the cause of the invasion. From the moment the US decided to bring down the Assad regime, it was already a foregone conclusion that Turkey would seize the opportunity and invade.

We would do well to remember that it was the policy of regime change in Iraq and Syria that made the Islamic State (ISIS), and necessitated enlisting the help of the Kurds in the first place.

The United States illegally diverted arms from Russia, China, and Eastern Europe to non-state actors in Syria in order to remove Assad from power. The Islamic State grew out of this regime change environment. 90 percent of all weapons recovered from ISIS can be traced to the United States shipments of weapons to non-state actors in Syria. The same thing has apparently just happened again in Yemen. American military technology sold to the UAE and Saudi Arabia has now fallen into the wrong hands once again.

The Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK is another example of a non-state actor sponsored by the United States to help overthrow the Assad regime. However, after the emergence of the Islamic State the United States enlisted the PKK to help defeat ISIS. At various times and for diverse reasons the PKK has been designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, 28 European countries, and Japan. Of course, the process by which one particular group is designated a terrorist organization is highly political and sometimes subjective. The PKK disputes this designation and many governments believe they are not entirely without justification for doing so.

Regardless of their current or past status on various terrorist watch lists, the point is the same: by further arming and supporting the PKK the United States made them a greater perceived threat to Turkey, and provided them with all the political capital they needed to justify an invasion.

Thus, the Kurds have once again become a casualty of America’s meddling in the Middle East. Unless many things change regarding our interventionist foreign policy, we will be doomed to repeat this blunder ad infinitum.

The more important question for me as a missionary who has just returned from Kurdistan is why do so many Christians blindly and routinely support politicians who are obsessed and addicted to war in the very region that was the cradle of Christianity?

In addition, why have we supported a destructive and violent policy that has resulted in the deaths, hardships, and displacement of so many Christians—not to mention millions of people from other faiths who are created in the image of God?

What has possessed us? Why do we love violence so much? And where are the politics of Jesus in all of this?

I implore you to search the Scriptures, and you will not find one single justification from Jesus to perpetrate unjust and illegal wars.

It’s rather astonishing that many who are now publically critical of the withdrawal have been absolutely silent about our involvement in illegal and unjust wars for nearly two decades.

Furthermore, even from the point of view of a nation-state, no one can point to a single benefit from the policy of regime change for the American people. And no such benefit will be forthcoming either because the policy of regime change has been a massive and catastrophic failure. The only one’s benefiting are the defense contractors, and the high-ranking military and Department of Defense officials who do their bidding—the “Lords of War.”

Christians need to make it clear to all elected officials: if they vote for unjust war and regime change; we won’t vote for them. The supporters of regime change have made life a living hell on earth for millions of people, and for tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

It’s past time to stop it!

David James is the alias for the author who is serving as missionary in a “sensitive” country.