THE THIRD CRUSADE

Am I the only one who senses the irony at how the 2009 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize has painted himself into a corner into a war with no good guys?

And so we embark upon the Third Modern Crusade.

The First Modern Crusade was the Gulf War of 1991, of course. This limited excursion liberated Kuwait, featured SCUD missiles raining down on Tel Aviv and brought about a tenuous twelve-year peace.

The Second Modern Crusade of 2003 included the Liberation of Baghdad, which quickly devolved into savagery, and the Sack of Falluja.

Right now the options for military intervention in Syria are bad, and worse. There are no good guys on the ground. A series of sterile air and cruise missile strikes will accomplish little, if anything; Assad has disbursed his weapons and troop formations amongst civilian population centers; collateral damage i.e. non-combatant casualties are inevitable. Imagery of these casualties will be exploited to the max by the Assad regime.

At this time, Assad has approximately two hundred SCUD missiles pointed toward Israel; this is his only trump card and we must assume they have chemical warheads. Meanwhile, his allies the Iranians have Allah knows how many missiles pointed toward Israel. A reminder; the Islamic fundamentalists view the State of Israel as merely a modern iteration of the old Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Western foothold into their territory, and they are determined to take it back. This explains their eagerness to unleash havoc.

Has anyone in the Obama Administration spoken of possible objectives in Syria? I have not seen this discussion in the media. To put Americans in harms way without a stated goal is beyond ignorant; this borders on criminal negligence.

From a purely strategic point of view, the only effective application of military force would be to go in and kill in all directions. There are no good guys. Assad and the Awalite forces are behaving like pure savages, while the rebel forces have been thoroughly usurped by al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

A Crusader's memoir from the Third Crusade: "We slew the Saracens in their thousands and in their tens of thousands, until the blood ran knee deep in the streets. Knee deep, to the horses knees."

This of course, brings to mind the timeless quote of Arnaud Amalric, uttered at the commencement of the sack of Cathar stronghold of Béziers, during the Albigensian Crusade in 1204:

Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.

"Kill them all, for the Lord knows those that are His own."

- STORMBRINGER SENDS