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The more things change…

On this date in 1095, Pope Urban II introduced a controversial policy at the Council of Clermont that would forever cement the nature of Muslim/Christian relations. Urban, concerned about the spread of Islam, called on all Franks - knights and peasants alike - to reclaim Jerusalem. Promising eternal life in exchange for military service, Urban set the stage for what would become one of the most tragic land-grabs on record - the First Crusade. Using Christianity as a defense, the Crusaders unleashed a barbaric campaign of terror throughout the heart of the Holy Land that still resonates in the Muslim world to this very day.

It’s amazing how those terrible events of nearly a millenium ago have really done nothing to end the centuries-old power struggle in the region. Here we are in the year 2005, and we’re still waging war against the Muslim world. The reasons have changed, the justifications have changed, and the exact definition of the enemy has changed, but the core combatants have remained the same - Islamic militants vs. Western Civilization. As much as the United States has tried to convince Muslims that we are fighting terror, not Islam, the rhetoric that fueled the bloody Crusades can still be found in the language our leadership uses while discussing the War on Terror. Let’s check out a couple quotes from W:

“This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile.” - September, 2001

“…these militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region, and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia.” - Veterans Day, 2005

I don’t have a political point to make here. Justifications for the Iraq War can range from the plausible to the absurd, and I’m not trying to spark that debate. I just find it interesting how so little has changed in the last 1,000 years. No, we don’t impale Muslim children on spits and cook them for dinner like the Franks did at Ma’arra during the First Crusade, but we’ve made it perfectly clear that “collateral damage” will not impede our military ambitions. Today we find ourselves in the middle of a perpetual war, and I sincerely hope we can find a practical and realistic way to get ourselves out of it.