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More striking is the US and Allied invasion of Iraq, and their resemblance to the crusades. I would imagine that US fundamental Christians see that rather obvio

• DanielBMarkham 11y ago
  Not at all, actually. The Crusades started off when the Patriarch of Constantinople wrote a letter to the Pope wanting money, basically. He talked about how the Holy Land was in jeopardy and pilgrims couldn't make their pilgrimages anymore. So the Pope preaches a sermon about how bad things are in the Holy Land. Tons of regular people decided to go over there and fight to "take it back" The nobles saw what was happening and ended up more joining in than anything else. (They did not lead it) So here you have this ragtag army of regular citizens making a huge land journey. It must have been like locusts for the poor villages in the way. The nobles that participated, meanwhile, did what they could to try to turn this disorganized mob into some kind of organized fighting force. When they showed up, they simply overwhelmed the Islamic forces that were there. Ended up taking a huge swath of territory. Does any of this sound familiar? Sermons, unintended consequences, common-man-as-warrior, huge victory because nobody was prepared, etc? That's ISIS. It took over a hundred years for the effects of the First Crusade to wear off, and yes, in that time there were many more. But in the end the Crusaders turned out to be really good at being true believers and fighting and dying for their cause. Maintaining a complex series of alliances in a land that was hostile? Not so much. Wonder if ISIS will manage to last that long. Doubtful.