The Long Lens of History

With the seventh anniversary of 9/11 behind us and the election of a new President before us, it may help those who are wavering in their decision and even those who are committed to one candidate or another to provide a frame of reference for their choice, a frame of reference that relies less upon the current economic frenzy than upon the inescapable record of history. That record indicates that it is not our stock market or balance of trade or our tax policy that is most important to our survival but our security. Security is the bedrock of our country, the foundation upon which all else is built. The loss of security would extinguish our national life forever, so as important as our economy may be to us and to the world, it is our national security that is the paramount concern.

We are engaged in a Global War On Terror against agents of Islamic empire, the latest campaign in a war that has raged for nearly 1400 years. Americans of the early 21st century tend to have short memories, tend to focus on the here-and-now, tend to consider war - no matter how necessary - as a gross distraction from the more important goal of self-indulgence. But we are engaged in a fight not only for our own survival but the survival of Western civilization, and the desire of some Americans as articulated by Senator Obama to simply pack up and go home is ludicrously irresponsible. Beyond that, wars conclude when both parties stop fighting, so the supposition that worldwide militant Islam will simply stay put while we retreat is similarly ludicrous. It contravenes both common sense and the historical truth of Mohammed's religion:

circa 610 AD: Mohammed begins preaching Islam in Mecca

630 AD: Muslims capture Mecca

636 AD: Muslims capture Jerusalem

633 - 642 AD: Muslims conquer all of North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Iraq

710 AD: Muslims conquer Spain

721 AD: A Muslim invasion of Gaul is stopped by Odo the Great, Duke of Aquitaine, at the Battle of Toulouse

732 AD: Another Muslim invasion of Gaul is stopped by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours, likely saving Western Europe from Muslim conquest

1291 AD: Muslims capture Acre, the last Christian stronghold in Palestine, ending the Crusades

1389: Muslims defeat a Serbian army at the Battle of Kosovo, ruining the Serbs' dream of independence

1396: Muslims defeat a Christian coalition at the Battle of Nicopolis, extending Muslim domination of the Balkans

1453: On their sixth attempt since 1390, Muslims capture Constantinople, capital of the eastern Roman Empire for a thousand years, and push Muslim control as far west as Hungary

1492: Christians reconquer Spain

1522: Muslims capture Belgrade and force the Christian Knights of St. John to abandon their base on the island of Rhodes

1529: A Muslim invasion is stopped at Vienna

1565: After a three-month siege, the Knights of St. John defeat a Muslim invasion force at their new base on the island of Malta

1683: A Muslim invasion is defeated again at Vienna, marking the beginning of 250 years of decline in the Muslim world

Let's look closer at just one of these events. On Friday, 18 May 1565, a Turkish invasion fleet appeared off the coast of Malta. Two hundred galleys, the largest and best artillery train in the world and 38,000 men had been sent by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to destroy the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, the last of the Christian Crusading orders, once and for all. Opposing them was a force of 900 knights and about 8000 native Maltese volunteers. For 113 days, these mortal enemies shot and slashed and burned and stabbed each other to death while the entire Mediterranean hung in the balance. When the Turks overran little Fort St. Elmo after a month of fierce resistance, they massacred the defenders, decapitated them, crucified the remains and dumped them in Grand Harbour to terrify the survivors. In retaliation, the Knights executed their Turkish prisoners, decapitated them, loaded the heads into cannon and fired them back across the harbor. It was war to the knife, savage, ugly and pitiless, but on 08 September 1565, the Turks retreated, having failed to break the Christians' will to resist.

It is very plain that Islam waged an unrelenting war of conquest against the rest of the world, but especially against the Christian West, for over a thousand years. Constitutional democracy did not exist, the United States, Israel and the "Palestinian question" did not exist, the major reasons cited by Muslim extremists to justify their violence, yet militant Muslim armies slaughtered and burned and raped half the known world for Allah. The only explanation for these ten centuries of brutal conquest is the nature of Islam itself, an aggressive and brutal religion driven to enslave humanity and to destroy whatever it cannot enslave. Thus Senator Obama's proposed withdrawal from Iraq and overtures to Iran are a ridiculously naive vision of foreign policy at the very least, certainly betray an ignorance of historical fact, and are an invitation to disaster at the very worst. Listen to the words of Queen Elizabeth I commenting on the Turkish invasion of Malta 443 years ago: "If the Turks should prevail against the Isle of Malta, it is uncertain what further peril might follow the rest of Christendom." Meaning that Islam will not be satisfied until their bloody flag flies over the entire world. Senator Obama, and your near-sighted one-world supporters, take heed.