On the slopes of a low mountain, a chilly breeze blows up from the Nineveh plain and through the spires of the Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac churches in the village of al-Qosh. The peace amid the stone and concrete homes of al-Qosh contrasts starkly with the checkpoint just outside the town, manned by gruff peshmerga soldiers of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). It belies the war only 25 miles south, where Iraqi security forces and militias are fighting the Islamic State (IS) to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.

Rabie Patros Younis, a deacon and Christian community activist, settled down in his home office after a phone conversation in his native Syriac. A strained smile came to his face.

“To be honest, Iraq used to be full of Christians,” Younis said. “After 2003, we Christians started to get the idea that we have no place in the region,” referring to the waves of sectarian-based violence that washed over Iraq, hitting religious minorities particularly hard, after the 2003 US-led invasion.

“We’ve been waiting for someone to come change our reality,” Younis continued. “Since 2003, it’s only gotten worse.” That, in short, is why many in Younis' shrinking community supported Donald Trump’s candidacy for president.