Long, Long Wars

Most of us have heard something about the “crusades” if only the references to Richard the Lionheart's extended absence off fighting the 3^rd crusade which gave rise to the tyrannical rule of his brother, John, which brought us almost everyone’s early superhero – Robin Hood. 

The key phrase in the previous paragraph is “off fighting the 3^rd crusade…”

Why?  The last time Christianity in the form of the kings, queens and popes of Europe decided they had had enough of the prophet’s pilgrims plundering and pillaging of the Holy land and all in between the Holy land and their neighborhoods was over 1000 years ago.  Here is a rough timeline and description of the several crusades and their objectives/results:

1^st – (1096 – 1099) the beginning crusade was announced by Pope Urban II in response to an appeal from the Byzantine Emperor to get rid of the Sunni Muslims who controlled much of Turkey as well as to recapture the Holy Lands (HL) and control Jerusalem.  They had some successes but their accomplishments were not long lived leading to..

2^nd – (1145 – 1149) started by Pope Eugene III and led by kings of France and Germany.  They were unsuccessful in the HL but did kick the Moors out of Lisbon, leading to the…

3^rd – as noted Richard led it with some assistance from Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa and Austria’s Leopold against the Muslim leader Saladin.  They had some success but failed to retake Jerusalem which led to….

4^th – (1202 – 1204) did not get much done other than to finalize the break between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians

5^th thru 9^th – (1217 – 1272) not good results for the Christians setting the stage for the current situation or if one is secure in their acceptance of the prophet – Allahu Akbar

There are many good books and endless history telling available at your library or on the World Wide Web (unless you live in most of the Muslim lands) to help you grasp the history of this centuries old conflict.   Suffice it to say – it’s been a long, long war.

So, what is the point of this extraordinarily abbreviated summation of the crusades?  Two things.  Call it what you will – crusades, war on terror, democratization, bringing justice, women’s rights, etc. – the western powers have no lasting track record of success in defeating the prophets horde much less converting them or modernizing them.  And, any such attempts to do so will occupy more centuries – not years or decades as promised and will bankrupt even the most financially secure of the defenders of freedom and our way of life, etc.  In other words, OBLaden knew exactly of what he spoke when he said all his gang needed to do was rile up the infidels and let them go about destroying themselves.

Which leads us to this conclusion:

• Contain them in their oil rich lands, if possible, and
• Examine their toe/foot/leg holds in our own neighborhoods

Contain means – ally with those Islamists who will place their self preservation ahead of the new caliphate (or at least stop destroying them as we have been doing) and any or all of those non Islamists bordering the Muslim lands who are not seeking conversion but are facing it due to geographical proximity (BTW - that's a strategy.)

Examine our own policies regarding their entry into our lands.  This, of course, is highly politically incorrect which speaks volumes about our inherent weakness – the idea that we can ignore an intolerant societal/cultural/commercial and political movement and call it a “religion” is just plain nuts.  They tell us to convert or die – we might wish to consider if that “religious belief” is a bit inconsistent with our open, independent, free society or what remains of it today.  The US constitution, what little is left of it that is, prohibits any form of established religion or any impediments to anyone’s religion.  Don’t need to be an east coast lawyer to figure out that a religion that does not tolerate other religions is a no-no.

Do you ever get the idea that we go out of our way to make everything as complicated as possible and that in so doing all we are really doing is dancing to the tune of someone who benefits from the complexity?