Catholic Patriarch of Antioch Ignace Joseph III Younan: “We declare, with great distress, that our bishopric in Mosul has been completely burned down: manuscripts, libraries, etc. But they have already announced that all Christians must convert to Islam or else they will be executed. It is a terrible thing! And this puts the international community to shame!”
Vatican Radio Correspondent Sergio Cenofanti: “Are there still Christians in Mosul?”
Younan: “There are none left! There are none left!”
As if our boys in Kiev weren’t bad enough, our boys in Iraq are worse still, and have taken to marking the homes and businesses of Christians with an Arabic “N” (for “Nazarene”) in anticipation of subsequent murder and pillage. The displacement of this nearly two-millennia old population of Christians is now nearly complete.
The Orthosphere 
As far as I am concerned National Review Catholics like Robert George and George Weigel have the blood of these Christians on their hands.
This is off-topic, as it’s question for ISE and not about this post, so I apologize in advance…
ISE, if I may ask, what happened to your blog? I’m guessing you closed it down. If so, why?
I know there were never loads of commenters over there (and probably not a lot of web traffic either), but FWIW I always enjoyed your posts, finding them both interesting and insightful.
I’ll miss your blog. Thank you for taking the time to blog and write about the things you did, as you helped change my thinking in several different areas, like economics (for example).
Thanks for the kind words Manwe I really appreciate it. I probably should have left a farewell, but I figured I would be sticking around this part of the web anyway and so would maintain contact that way. I deleted my blog mainly because I was tired of blogging. I am not particularly good at it nor at writing in general as witnessed by my frequent grammar and spelling errors. But thanks for commenting there, I enjoyed our discussions.
There are several other excellent blogs out there (aside from this one) that cover a lot of same themes and authored by far more intelligent and better writers than myself-
A recent one is the blog “Josias” – http://the-josias.blogspot.com/p/incipit.html
Another one is authored by a “cyber friend” of mine- “Opus Publicum” – http://opuspublicum.wordpress.com/
Thanks again and God Bless!
How so? Whatever their opinions, I didn’t think these gentlemen had that much power over events.
I think ISE is expressing the special hostility decent people feel for the toadies of mass murderers. Somehow they are more contemptible than the murderers themselves.
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If only the Church still had its military orders… **
I know, I know. For this reason or that reason it would not work out, got it. But a man can dream, can’t he? Christendom was always a safer place when the brothers of war were about.
Yesterday was the feast of St. Lawrence Brindisi, who aided Rudolf II in driving the Turks from Hungary in 1601, with prayer and a crucifix. Perhaps all willing souls who read these words can offer a prayer to enlist his aid once again to embolden bishops, priests and laity both to speak the truth of these atrocities in Iraq and other places where Islam has wrested power, and also to defy those forces of evil that would defame the Holy Name of Jesus Christ.
Almighty God,
for the glory of Your Name
and the salvation of souls,
You conferred upon St. Lawrence,
the spirits of counsel and fortitude.
Grant us, in the same Spirit,
to know what we are to do,
and through his prayers,
to do what we have come to know.
We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Thank you for reporting on this! This is a clear-cut case of ethnic cleansing, and the West is studiously pretending not to notice. The only good Christian is a dead Christian, I suppose.
And the stories of the gang-rapes of Christian women, whose men couldn’t pay the jizya, are truly horrifying. Systematic rape is a well-known aspect of genocide.
I know. I’ve been trying to remember why a new crusade would be a bad idea, but I’m increasingly drawing a blank, and wondering how much a decent suit of armor and a war horse are going for nowadays.
“how much a decent suit of armor and a war horse are going for nowadays.”
The current version of the M1A1 Abrams tank goes for about $7.5 million. Unit costs for the British FV4034 Challenger 2 tank have been between £4.2 million and £6.8 million. These are both state-of-the-art main battle tanks. British unit costs are higher because the Challenger 2 was produced in fewer numbers. A number of other countries manufacture very deadly and very capable tanks. Of these, the Russian T 90 might have the lowest unit cost, perhaps $2.7 to $4.3 million.
The Abrams and the Challenger performed very well in the Gulf Wars, but the Middle East is still in terrible shape. Whether the recent Gulf Wars have made the situation better or worse, I leave to the reader.
I recommend The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia–and How It Died by Philip Jenkins. We are witnessing the latest chapter in a very long history.
LOL I’m apparently not the only one who’s given this some thought.
What I’ve been noticing:
— ISIS is dominated by European citizens. They’re a minority, but they control the upper levels, for obvious reasons. We could quickly raise a similar-sized crusading army composed completely of Europeans.
— They are taking over territory quite quickly, but with little resistance because the opposition is not unified and is demoralized. Their terrifying reputation also seems to make their opponents quickly lose heart.
— A specifically Christian army would attract men from those currently fleeing to Kurdistan and would receive donations from Christians all over the planet.
I’m just waiting for someone to explain to me why we don’t do that sort of thing anymore. Other than the obvious fact that this would get a fresh bunch of white guys embroiled in the mess over there, and that we’d have to “play for keeps” like Israel is doing and there’s just no stomach for that anymore.
Or is it simply that there’s no longer any entity to sound the call to war anymore?
I Don’t Need An Abrams. I Have Armor Plates (Sapi) A Rifle A Pistol And A Well Trained Mind And Body. If I Were To Head Out To Help Assad I Would Get Stopped By Obama. If There Was An International Force Of Christians In The 4Th Generation Of Warfare They Would Be Designated terrorists Rooted Out And Killed By Obama. (Don’t Ask About The Caps)
That’s true. The nation states would be very happy to kill us.
They are taking over territory quite quickly, but with little resistance because the opposition is not unified and is demoralized. Their terrifying reputation also seems to make their opponents quickly lose heart.
I have a more prosaic theory. We are supplying them with money, arms, munitions, logistics, intel, and covert ops (both psychological and kinetic) against their would-be adversaries. Our sudden, mysterious reticence to kill these particular “jihadis” is kind of . . . mysterious, no?
I just can’t imagine many U.S. personnel working with them covertly on the ground (kinetic). There would likely be a “Snowden” among them.
“ISIS is dominated by European citizens. They’re a minority, but they control the upper levels, for obvious reasons. We could quickly raise a similar-sized crusading army composed completely of Europeans.”
European citizens and Europeans are not the same thing. Those “Europeans” fighting for ISIS are 9/10 Islamic immigrants or their descendants. The 1/10 are European converts to Islam.
Also Europeans and other Westerners are too decadent and too soft to be of any real utility. Have you seen the typical Western man? Their sense of adventure or duty have been beaten out of them. Why fight when they can pretend to fight by playing COD? And considering how Christians in America hold their ankles in domestic matters (look at the invasion from Central America). What makes you think that they’ll assert any sort of aggression in the middle east?
“As far as I am concerned National Review Catholics like Robert George and George Weigel have the blood of these Christians on their hands.”
Well, then, you don’t know much about Catholic ethics or morality if you did.
As for the original post, it is strange to call out “our boys” in Kiev and Iraq for the atrocities being committed right now against their governments. I suppose you could argue that had we never gotten involved, in either place these terrible events would never have taken place. Fair enough. But it is not “our boys” demanding Christians leave Mosul (indeed, our friends the Kurds are often taking in the Christian refugees). And it was not “our boys” in Eastern Ukraine that shot down the Malaysian jet.
This has yet to be proven, and probably never will be.
See here, concerning the airliner. What we are witnessing is a propoganda war, on both sides.
You are spouting nonsense. Our boys in Kiev are responsible, now, for a long series of atrocities. It’s not clear at this point who shot down the airliner, but the weight of the evidence points to the Kiev junta. Whether they did it intentionally or in a drunken act of indiscipline by their freak-show of an army is similarly unclear.
Al Quaeda is our long-term ally in the Middle East, so the way to bet is that ISIS is a US production. It’s not as clear that ISIS are our boys as it is that the Kiev Nazis are our boys, but it’s likely.
“The weight of the evidence points to the Kiev junta.”
No it doesn’t. See this article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/malaysia-airlines-mh17-crash-prorussian-rebel-admits-to-shooting-down-plane-9622075.html
and this one:
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-intelligence-us-20140722-story.html
Just a tragic mistake, part of the civil war in eastern Ukraine. As much as I’d like to paint the rebels as monsters and as much as you seem to want to paint the “Kiev junta” as monsters, this was just a mistake — that cost a lot of innocent people their lives.
As for your claims about al-Qaeda — they are certainly original and unique. Please tell me, did al-Qaeda become our ally before or after 9/11? Before or after Iraq? Before or after we killed bin-Laden? Inquiring minds want to know…
Yes, it does. Only the US and the Kiev junta benefit from the shoot-down. The US has so far refused to provide evidence for its claims, in sharp contrast to Russia. Kiev has been caught lying repeatedly in the aftermath of the shoot-down. The articles you link are good examples of the vacuum of evidence for Russian or Novorussian culpability. The first reports that an Italian journalist (!) says some guy claiming to be a Novorussian militiaman claims his superior thought that the militia shot down the plane. The second just reports the second round of US spin, void of evidence. Thus far, the US has not even established that the Novorussians have any SAMs capable of doing the shoot-down, though it would not be surprising if they did. Currently, the US does not publicly claim to have observed the missile launch. There is a media report that it did, and the Russians claim there was a US satellite overhead at the time. Personally, I was enjoying the first round of US spin, in which it was citing twitter. That was awesome.
As for your claims about al-Qaeda — they are certainly original and unique.
They are pretty well known facts. Neocons usually call them “leftist propaganda” or some such. Our support for Al-Quaeda, both directly and through our Saudi and Pakistani allies, dates back to the late 1970s and continues up to the present—who do you think the US and Saudi Arabia are funding in Syria? No! Don’t tell me! We’re funding “moderates,” right? So, that would be both before and after 2001.
I have no idea why we went to that safe house in Pakistan, why we killed bin Laden, or why we picked that time to do it. The real story in all that, of course, was that he was hanging out in a safe house near the headquarters of the Pakistani secret police.
“Thus far, the US has not even established that the Novorussians have any SAMs capable of doing the shoot-down, though it would not be surprising if they did.”
Are you sure about those “Novorussians”:
http://blog.storyful.com/2014/07/19/how-social-sleuthing-uncovered-evidence-of-anti-aircraft-missile-system-in-eastern-ukraine/#.U9FcJB4o6Ul
Meanwhile, it appears that like the Russians, you willfully choose to live in an alternate reality — one in which black is white and Islamic radicals who hate the U.S. are friendly allies:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/24/its-not-just-about-the-malaysian-flight-russians-are-living-in-an-alternate-reality/
As for al-Qaeda, I guess us neo-cons have access to a different set of facts. For example, the fact that al-Qaeda didn’t exist until the late 80s (although you are correct that we did fund mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan); the fact that we probably don’t have good handle on who exactly we are helping in Syria but we are at least trying to help the Supreme Military Council:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10588308/US-secretly-backs-rebels-to-fight-al-Qaeda-in-Syria.html
Whether or not this is wise or foolish, these rebels are not ISIS or al-Qaeda.
As for our “allies” in Pakistan, I agree with you that we can’t trust anyone over there.
I see you enjoyed the intelligence-by-twitter as much as I did. When do you think the US will provide any evidence at all for its claims?
Meanwhile, it appears that like the Russians, you willfully choose to live in an alternate reality — one in which black is white and Islamic radicals who hate the U.S. are friendly allies:
Are you really incapable of seeing that this is a childish, demagogic talking point worthy of Jonah Goldberg? Allies can’t hate each other? Did Winston Churchill exist in your world?
As for al-Qaeda, I guess us neo-cons have access to a different set of facts. For example, the fact that al-Qaeda didn’t exist until the late 80s (although you are correct that we did fund mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan);
Yeah, yeah. Al-Quaeda is a very flexible concept. When denying that the US had anything to do with it, it gets a very narrow definition in time, space, and membership. When explaining that it is an imminent and terrible threat to everything we hold dear, it is everywhere and its membership is vast. Whatever. We funded Islamic extremists fighting in Afghanistan beginning in the 1970s both directly and through our allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Among those Islamic extremists was bin Laden and his chums, whom we must not call Al Quaeda because that would be inconvenient for Richard Perle. Or something.
It’s the same thin ruse in Syria. We don’t want to be seen driving a Chrysler, so we buy a Routan instead. The Saudis and Turks are not so picky/insane, so they buy Caravans and Routans indiscriminately.
This essay and related comments are what I was getting at here. ISIS is a clear demonstration of the paralysis of Western Christians with their intellectual abstractions in the face of men with guns and the will to use them. The only way you are going to stop ISIS is by killing ISIS fighters. Western governments aren’t going to do it; Western Christians aren’t going to do it. We have become too prosperous and comfortable.
This paralysis is playing out in a lot of different areas. Immigration is a good example. Mass movements of people across national borders used to be called ‘invasion,’ and it was repelled by men willing to fight and die for strangers. Westerners see things in terms of intellectual abstractions: the rule of law, the proposition nation. In reality, it’s the same old conflict that’s always been around: people and territory. Or, more poetically, blood and soil.
We’re nice people who don’t like to think about the fact that a lot of phenomena will not cease unless we do some very ugly things. We won’t, so they won’t.
Finally someone talking some sense. Where all of the young men of the type who fought for the Boers in the Boer Wars? Or of course, those in the crusades?
The problem is that the State has become both too powerful and too meddlesome. Even the right-wing government of 1940’s America didn’t prosecute the traitorous pro-Republican American volunteers who fought against the venerable General Franco until well after the fact during the McCarthy trials.
America is nothing but a dangerous threat to the West and Greater Christendom. From where I stand, Russia is our only ally.