George Bush reffered to the current war on terrorists in Iraq as a crusade. Most of us would think nothing of it, in fact we would take crusade as meaning the pursuit of a noble cause. But the word alone has a deeper and bloodier past that still rings strong in the muslim world today. Back in the tenth century, the pope ordered knights from all across Europe to take the holy land, freeing it from the muslims. The crusades were a failure, but some major atrocities were commited upon civilian and muslim soldier alike. People were butchered and the crusaders walked through the streets with "blood up to their ankles".
This sparked a reaction from the media, and also from the Muslims. Now Osama is styling himself as the new saladin, a hero for the muslims who will run the crusaders out and save them from the invaders. It's like the phrase, history repeats itself. Or do the people repeat history?
The military is out to kill Osama and has bombed many places in Muslim territory, so its easy to see why they would see us as the crusaders of old, riding takes and weilding machine guns.
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