War and religion

Pope Urban II initiated the two centuries long "holy wars" in 1095. The Crusades that he labeled as "God's will" (Deus vult) saw the killing of nine million people, widespread famine, disease and massacres. Numerous cities, including Antioch, Edessa and Tripoli, were besieged, looted and destroyed. The Church validated for the Crusaders, executing 'God's plan', to disrupt trade routes, destroy agricultural land and religious sites, and commerce prostitution in their camps.

Such abhorrent were the Church's crimes against humanity that the Western mind rightly started hating religion. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote in 1820s, "the fruits of Christianity were religious wars, butcheries, crusades, inquisitions, extermination of the natives of America, and the introduction of African slaves in their place." Swiftly after, Europe was overtaken by the likes of secularism, liberalism and feminism, and faith was pushed to the godowns of human conscience.

Fast forward to 1991, the end of the Cold War and the emergence of the US as a sole superpower. Francis Fukuyama termed the moment as 'the End of History', the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government. Humanity tried to embrace the ideas of democracy and liberalism, but soon, it found that it was destined to remain at the base layer of the towering pyramid of the capitalist plutocracy. Samuel Huntington disagreed with Fukuyama and presented the famous thesis arguing that future wars will certainly take place, and "would be fought not between countries, but between cultures". And cultures are based upon language, custom, ethnicities and, most strongly, upon faiths.

This time, while Catholic figures in the US have condemned the war on Iran as 'morally illegitimate', the Epstein-cursed political mafia of the US seems to be completely compromised by some satanic frenetic cult mentality, posing to be the messianic deliverers of the end-times! It's hard to estimate whether the US political system controlled by its military industrial complex, the Jewish lobby and the Wall Street financial giants are using religion as a cover to pacify the meek believing masses; or, when it comes to foreign policy and war strategy the US political framework is, at the core, fully messianic and Zionist.

Reportedly, 200 US troops have sent complaints of superiors using extremist Christian rhetoric to justify war. The troops were being told that the war on Iran was 'all part of God's divine plan', and citations referring to the Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ were being quoted to them. So, is this the Crusades 2.0, wherein Biblical prophecies would replace International Law; violence would replace diplomacy; and death would be replaced with martyrdom?

Like in the 11th century, are all ethics, restraint and the laws of war being trash-canned? And the Under Secretary of Defense of Church of the US Department of War, Pete Hegseth, is heard saying, "We hear Christ say, 'Take up your cross and follow me.' Clearly Christ was not simply sent to be a diplomat. He was a disruptor. His mission was to divide truth from lies, the things of the world from the things of God, light from darkness, good from evil. And like Christ, in earthly ways, our brave warriors are not called to appease the world. They must confront it. We know we fight a physical battle, but ultimately grounded [in] a spiritual battlefield."

Later, in a heavily televised, March 7 White House prayer session, the President is seen surrounded by Evangelical leaders, placing their hands on him, praying "and Father we just pray you continue to give our president the strength that he needs to lead our nation as we come back to one nation under God." The same president whose name is recurring in Epstein's files as a pedophile and rapist!

Perhaps these were the reasons why the last attack on Iran in the 12-day war was deemed as Operation Rising Lion. The name was actually after a biblical prophecy that the people of Israel would rise like lions from adversity.

This religious warmongering against Iran has not been limited to Trump's close confidants, rather it seems to be across the board. US Senator Lindsey Graham has warned the American public the other day that "If America pulls plug on Israel, God will pull plug on us." Rather, one must notice that these ideas are not even limited to the Trump administration, they go way back. In 2005, President Bush said, "I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq.' And I did."

So, what is American political thinking in reality? Is it an advocacy of 'democracy', 'free market' and 'liberty' of all sorts? Is it the mission of making world governments 'secular' and protection of the LGBT culture? Is it a politics of free speech, equality and diversity, or is it the exact opposite?

In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee defied US democratic values saying, "We don't live in a world where you have a poll taken to find out whether our policy should be a particular direction..." Laying bare his boorish instincts, Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles has also recently said that "Muslims don't belong in American society" and "if they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one."

Surely Iran itself is a deeply embedded religious society, their teachings also await the Mahdi and the Messiah, but that doesn't mean they would start waging a war against Christendom or Judaism, rather they talk of a peaceful coexistence wherein their sovereign rights are not breached. In the war they have made sure to only hit the targets that have been hit by the enemy first; they have tried to preserve the UN-defined 'ethics of war'.

Sad is to think that at the peak of civilisation, at the summit of science and technology, and at the pinnacle of power, in the 21st century, the US and the West as a whole are ready to throw off all civility and lay bare in the eyes of humanity the real, uncouth, fierce barbarian who will now devour upon humanity — in the name of God!