While most people will look at the title and say, "yeah, we've heard that already -- for months now," MILNET has discovered an interesting cross section of people don't know much about how it all started, how it relates to modern day Israel and/or what the real situation in America is today.  Post 9/11 Americans are smarter than they were, angry and ready to deal out some Justice.  But if you probe you find they aren't that well educated on the finer points of why there is a War on Terror aside from 9/11.  This report hopes to fill in the gaps.  Some of these things you will know, some may be surprises.  We hope it will leave you informed and ready to do more.  Because if we continue at the pace of change we are currently keeping, we will not win the war here at the home front.
 

Introduction

An ancient foe of Christianity has arisen again.  But while this century's Pope is struggling with the impact of pedophile priests in the Catholic religion, and secular forces champion the downfall of the world's richest church, it is hard to see anyone stepping up to fight a religious war.

Since the Crusades proved that religion cannot be counted upon to always be pious and non-violent, organized religion has been under attack.  Now the religious war has spread to secular matters and America is at war after a stunning surprise attack on huge symbols of America's financial wealth and technological prowess.

Never before has an attack been so apparent yet so ignored.  Political correctness has underlined the need to be compassionate and sensitive to the rights of others, a nobel enterprise.  However the liberal experiment has swung the pendulum so far, it has sacrificed security for sensitivity.  It has made it nearly impossible to narrow our search for those who would harm us -- preventing us from even observing then enemy.  We are not permitted to look at the homeland, religion and racial origins of this old enemy.  And before the liberal reader explodes, we should point out that there is now solid evidence that the fear of racist stigma contributed to our nation's inability to stop the 9/11 terrorists.  Skip to Section Eight, What Lies Ahead for the evidence.

And while the enemy is using religion as their rallying cry, the problem is more than just religion or race.  The problem is as old as time itself.  The have nots are reaching out to take what they view as their share of what the world has to offer.  Unlike freedom fighters who look for their rights to make their own decisions and make their own wealth, the old enemy is looking for pay back that someone has erroneously taught them is their due and using violence that their 7th century interpretations tell them is the only answer.

Being raised in the tribal culture that has existed mostly unchanged since the Crusades, and fostered by a world that could care-a-less about their culture or indifferent to their oppression by leaders who think of themselves as the elite, they are striking back with the only weapon they know and understand, the only weapon that seems to have worked for them over the ages, violence.

This report looks back briefly before, during and after the Crusades, at the cruelty of religion of the time, both in terms of Jewish, Muslim and Christian cultures.  It then flashes forward to the 20th century, when Europeans still looking on the Arab countries as dirty heathen not worth even basic human rights, sought to take what they wanted from the Middle East with nothing approaching fair compensation.

In her book, Holy War:  The Crusades and Their Impact On Today's World, Karen Armstrong speaks of these three religions so intertwined yet so destined for battle amongst each other:

"These three religions are all deeply  related, yet at different times they have fought each other in savage holy wars.  The seed of much future strife is found in the original revelation to Abraham. Almost the first words spoken by God when he revealed himself to Abraham were: "To your descends I will give this land (Genesis 12:7).  To make this promise good, Abraham's descendants had to fight the first of many savage holy wars for this land, which many Jews today still see as essential to the integrity of Judaism...the Holy Land will be a key factor in our story..." ¹

Moving forward again, the report then looks at the period  when European and American ignorance threw the Israelis amongst the wolves, and began decades of strive as the Arabs around them chose a cause to break the Jewish and Christians backs upon, the rights of the so called Palestinians.

And in a unique view, the report traces the beginnings of the invasion into America of Arabian culture, setting a base of operations that has not only given refugee to their culture here, but also grown to a point in America where the Muslim community is nearly as woven into our diverse society as any other important minority of the melting pot that is America.

Finally we compare two Arab nations looking to find some hope for that region, followed by the problems at home here in America, and what lies in the future for us.

The report is organized into eight sections:

1. Before the Crusades
2. The Crusades
3. The 20th Century Occupation of the Middle East
4. The Genesis of the Terror War
5. The Arab Infiltration into America
6. The Duplicity That Remains
7. The Jihad Against America
8. What Lies Ahead

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