I agree that was a mistake, but who is doing this killing? Give me a break. These are Iraqis killing each other. So what did we do? If you're saying it's our fault that we unmasked them as knuckle-dragging savages from the 10th century -- fine! I'll take credit. But thanks -- but thanks for the observation, [Caller].
Let's review a bit of history, shall we? In the 10th century, the Muslims controlled a land area stretching from Spain and Morocco in the west to Indonesia, and even some of the Philippine Islands in the east. Trade was abundant because, while some of the Muslim states were warring with one another, all had banded together to eliminate pirates, except for portions of the northern and western Mediterranean where Christian nations made extra money through piracy. The overland pilgrim route was policed from present-day Bosnia all the way to Jerusalem, with safe passage guaranteed, including an abundance of inns and other waysites - churches were safe havens, of course. Venetian trading houses and bankers were starting to realize there was a fortune to be had in trade with the Muslim states to the east. They controlled much of the flow of trade down from the Low Countries in the Upper Rhine Valley, and offered many of these wares to visiting dignitaries. They were, shall we say, less than impressed, because their local craftspeople were far superior to these faint beginnings of industrial manufacture (five people working together in a room, rather than a lone person sitting at home).
When the Pope preached the First Crusade, the first thing that happened was a vagrant psychopath, or perhaps paranoid schizophrenic, preached a "People's Crusade", which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews, and the slaughter of these unofficial crusaders due to the unrest they were stirring up (in Muslim countries, there were no wholesale slaughter of Jews, as all religious practice was protected by law and custom; most of the bureaucracy in the larger Muslim states was manned by Jews and Christians, who saw a bit of leverage in keeping themselves essential to the functioning of the state). Of course, there was also the "Children's Crusade", which also ended up in disaster, with thousands of children dead or sold in to slavery (in Europe).
When the Crusaders reached Constantinople, the Emperor refused them entry, whereupon the Crusaders stormed the walls, slaughtered the Jews, and ransacked holy and non-holy sites for gold. When they reached Jerusalem a few months later, when they finally breached the walls, this was repeated, except on a much larger scale. Most of the Jews living in Jerusalem were herded in to synagogues, which were then put to the torch, after the doors were latched so those inside could not escape. Al 'Aqsa mosque was plundered and defiled - something that had never happened to a Christian church in Jerusalem during the entire time of Muslim sovereignty - and thousands of Muslims were put to the sword. For three days, the Christian knights raped and pillaged, killed and burned, and when it was done, proclaimed a Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem.
When Salah Al'Din retook Jerusalem a century or so later, he gave safe passage to all the Christian knights who had fought against him to return home. He gave a standing order that any of his soldiers who harmed a Christian or Jew, or defiled a non-Muslim holy place, was to be killed. He personally guaranteed the continued safe passage of pilgrims from "Christendom", which practice was to continue for another 600 years.
Who were the 10th century knuckle-draggers? Why, the ancestors of vaunted western civilization, viewed with horror and revulsion by both Eastern Christians and Muslims because they were dirty, illiterate (even the clergy who accompanied them were illiterate and ignorant), ignorant about the world, the religion they professed to believe in, the religion they professed to be at war with. They violated every tenet of war, of civilized conduct, that those in the east had known for several centuries. They were, in fact, knuckle-dragging savages, and we are still living with their horrible legacy to this day. Jon Gibson should be excused for his ignorance because he is, obviously, another knuckle-dragger.
