Putin and Crimea, a War Against Islam not against the West It has been more than 35 years since I was an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University in the Grad School. However, I still get into the professor mode from time to time. At the moment the issue of Crimea and the Western media is just driving me nuts. Thus, I will put you all asleep with a few of the following facts about Crimea. If you dont want to read these facts I will understand. I am certain jumping into icy water or stepping on a rusty nail would be more pleasant. Or maybe the sound of fingernails on the blackboard would be more restful. Not gone yet? Well ok, here it comes. This week the buzz remains on Putin, the Crimea and what the West might do. Seems the press find it convenient to beat the drums of the cold war and to bring up shadows of Soviet conquest of the world. In the case of Crimea, it is not a battle so much to recreate the “Evil Empire” mentioned by Ronald Reagan and NATO as it is a restatement of Christendom against Islam. From the end of WWII until its fall, the Soviet Union had really only engaged in hot combat with Islam. First there was the massive invasion Afghanistan in December 1979. Fighting continued much as it is today with USA Troops. The war in Afghanistan became a quagmire for a disintegrating Soviet Union. Soviets suffered 15,000 killed. They left in defeat on Feb. 15, 1989. Nothing had been accomplished. A waste of men and money. The same as the USA today. Islam had won again. No sooner had the Soviet Union fallen apart, the Chechen Islamics decided they too could win against a defeated Bear. I lived in Russia and was there before and during the first Chechen war in 1994. I saw the poorly equipped Russian Army and wondered if the Islamics could defeat it. The first Chechen War continued until a cease fire in 1996. There were continual borders attacks into Dagestan by Islamic Chechen separatists. In late August and September 1999, Russia mounted massive air strikes air over Chechnya. Finally in 2000, Putin regained control over the region. What most persons in the West do not understand that this conflict with Islam is nothing new. It goes back 1200 years when in 846 a Saracen fleet of 73 ships landed in Italy and sacked Rome. They burnt the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul. Three years later Pope Leo IV issued a call to the Franks, declaring Whoever meets death steadfastly in this fight against Moslem raiders of Italy the Heavenly Kingdom will not be closed to him. In 1073, Pope Gregory VII stated that the Church is obligated to create right order in the world rather than withdraw from it. Gregory issued bulls urging Christian princes to recover lands from Muslims in Spain, over which he claimed papal sovereignty on the basis of ancient right. Gregory’s idea was that Christian war was the responsibility of the Pope for the right order in the world, which could only be obtained through righteous Christian violence directed by the papacy with Crusades against Islam. In 1095 Pope Urban II organised the first Crusade to reconquer lost land from the Turks, who would later be known as the Ottoman Turks against whom the Russians would fight in Crimea in 1853. The Pope called upon the princes of Christendom for an armed “pilgrimage” to recover Jerusalem from the Muslims. The response is dramatic with waves of “crusaders” answering the Pope’s call. The wars against islam by Christendom continued for hundreds of years thereafter. The Russians adopted the Orthodox Church in 988 but also waged war against islam. Russians fought the Ottoman Turks in the Russo-Turkish War during the late 1500’s and thereafter every couple of decades. Russia and the Ottomans went to war in October 1853 over Russias rights to protect Orthodox Christians. The immediate issue involved the rights of Christians in the Holy Land controlled by the Ottomans In the beginning, Russia gained the upper hand after destroying the Ottoman fleet at the Black Sea port of Sinope. To stop Russias conquest, France and Britain entered in March 1854. Most of the fighting took place for control of the Black Sea, with land battles on the Crimean peninsula in southern Russia. The Russians were defeated, for a while. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 Russia won. Russia claimed several provinces in the Caucasus. Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, each of which had de facto sovereignty were proclaimed independence from the Ottomans. After almost five centuries of Ottoman domination (1396–1878), the Bulgarian state was re-established as the Principality of Bulgaria. So, what’s my point? The current situation in Crimea has less to do with Putin and his ambitions conquest and more to do with 1200 years of struggle of Christendom against islam. The Islamics acknowledge this struggle everyday. Why is it so difficult for the modern day West to understand this dynamic?
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 20:21:14 +0000
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