"The Bush Crusade" in this week's Nation puts bush's wars in historical

[milkyway]

perspective. It's excellent, written by James Carroll and is an excerpt from his book released in August, "Crusade: Chronicles of an Unjust War."
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Speaking spontaneously, without the aid of advisers or speechwriters, <Bush> put a word on the new American purpose that both shaped it and gave it meaning. "This crusade," he said, "this war on terrorism."


Crusade. I remember a momentary feeling of vertigo at the President's use of that word, the outrageous ineptitude of it. The vertigo lifted, and what I felt then was fear, sensing not ineptitude but exactitude. My thoughts went to the elusive Osama bin Laden, how pleased he must have been, Bush already reading from his script. I am a Roman Catholic with a feeling for history, and strong regrets, therefore, over what went wrong in my own tradition once the Crusades were launched. Contrary to schoolboy romances, Hollywood fantasies and the nostalgia of royalty, the Crusades were a set of world-historic crimes. I hear the word with a third ear, alert to its dangers, and I see through its legends to its warnings. For example, in Iraq "insurgents" have lately shocked the world by decapitating hostages, turning the most taboo of acts into a military tactic. But a thousand years ago, Latin crusaders used the severed heads of Muslim fighters as missiles, catapulting them over the fortified walls of cities under siege. Taboos fall in total war, whether crusade or jihad.

<snip>

In the name of Jesus, and certain of God's blessing, crusaders launched what might be called "shock and awe" attacks everywhere they went. In Jerusalem they savagely slaughtered Muslims and Jews alike--practically the whole city. Eventually, Latin crusaders would turn on Eastern Christians, and then on Christian heretics, as blood lust outran the initial "holy" impulse. That trail of violence scars the earth and human memory even to this day--especially in the places where the crusaders wreaked their havoc. And the mental map of the Crusades, with Jerusalem at the center of the earth, still defines world politics. But the main point, in relation to Bush's instinctive response to 9/11, is that those religious invasions and wars of long ago established a cohesive Western identity precisely in opposition to Islam, an opposition that survives to this day.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040920&s=carroll

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805077030/qid=1094572889/sr=ka-3/ref=pd_ka_3/102-9976584-0395364
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The author mentions a quote from bush that is perhaps the most revealing thing bush has ever said. "International law?" he smirked in December 2003. "I better call my lawyer." In one flip sentence, bush confirmed to the world what most had already thought: we are an outlaw nation, accountable to no one or no set of principles except those that further the self-interest of our ruling party.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Long read but quite worthwhile

thanks for posting this

[NMDemDist2]

2. kick from the home page n/t

[efhmc]

3. The arrogance, conceit and sheer lack of intellect and respect for

history and the sovereignty of other nations is absolutely mind boggling!!!