What has happened to the religious freedoms in the Middle East 10 years after US president George W. Bush embarked on his "crusade" (his own term) to bring freedom and democracy to this region? Lest anyone forget, the idea behind the invasion of Iraq was to provoke a "domino effect" in the region, with more and more countries embracing democracy and religious tolerance. And a domino effect it did have -- but of a different nature. The exodus of Christians and discrimination against them, which started in Iraq immediately after the US invasion, is now quickly spreading to other countries of the Middle East. It is going to reach new heights in Egypt, where a newly elected 100-member panel for drafting the new constitution of the country is going to be dominated by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the even more radical Salafist branch of Islamism. The panel, which will consist of 50 law makers and 50 other Egyptian figures promises to be the "embodiment" of Mr. Bush's idea of diversity, as the lawmaking part will be made up of 25 "Muslim Brothers," 11 Salafists and only 14 members of other parties. Both the representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists believe that the Egyptian state should be based on strict observance of the Islamic norms enshrined in the seventh century Moslem scriptures and openly say that separation of state and religion is anathema for them. After the removal of former president Hosni Mubarak from power, widely seen in the US as the belated coming of the Bush-promised "revolution in the greater Middle East," Egypt saw some of its worst sectarian violence in decades. In the provincial town of Sol, a church was destroyed by Moslem arsonists, and during a Christian demonstration against this crime 13 demonstrators were killed and nearly 150 wounded. During the demonstrations against Mubarak in the early 2011 the Christian community remained neutral or even loyal to Mubarak, very much like the Christian community of Syria stays loyal to president Bashar Assad, much to the dislike of US democracy-promoters. Unfortunately, Mideast Christians have a reason to be weary of the US-supported trends. In both Egypt and Syria, Christians fear to repeat the plight of their co-believers in the already "democratized" Iraq. In that country, according to the annual report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, "half or more of the pre-2003 Iraqi Christian community is believed to have left the country, with Christian leaders warning that the consequence of this flight may be the end of Christianity in Iraq." Here are the figures: in 2003, there were thought to be 800,000 to 1,4 million Christians in Iraq (Chaldean Catholics, Assyrian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, etc.). Today, as CIRF report, that number has been reduced to 500,000. Was it a conscious policy of the United States or a tragic mistake that led to such gruesome results? And why is the same mistake repeated in other countries, such as Egypt or Syria, where the US often supports the anti-Christian, religiously intolerant movements? The answers could be summed up as "conscious ignorance." "I don't think Bush or Cheney consciously wanted to exterminate the Christian community in Iraq. They and especially their aides Richard Pearle and Paul Wolfowitz were ill-advised by Iraqi