SYRIA IN LIGHT OF EUROPE’S SECT-WARS
Most US grade school children are taught about
Luther’s defiance of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. But few know about the horrible wars it sparked
lasting over one hundred years in Europe. Those Protestant religious reforms unsettled
the way people thought about spiritual matters but they also destabilized their
views about social structures, political involvement, and the economic inequities
of their day as well.
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The Arab Spring without
question arose out of a different religious turmoil, was sparked by different
disruptive forces but stimulated very similar issues. The goals expressed by Arab millennials
for states that would show respect for personal liberty, individual dignity,
and universal justice, as stated by one of its activists,
Iyad el-Bagdhadi. These are not
much different than the demands which drove the German Peasants’ War in 16th
Century Europe. That war saw 3000,000
insurgents fight to establish their idea of God’s Kingdom on Earth but resulted
in 100,000 people killed and their desired “Christian Commonwealth” to never be
established.
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By 1618 the issues had become more complicated and overtly sectarian.
The Protestants, including Lutherans and
Calvinists, were at war with not only the Roman Catholics but also waging war against
each other and any other Christian sect.
It was not unlike the present Sunni/Shia war in the Middle East pitting any
and all other faiths or sects against each other. The Christian war raged for thirty
years. It was so vicious that during the
latter 30 years of 100 years’ war 20% of Europe’s population had perished. In Germany, where most of the battles were
fought only half the population survived.
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A family Bible from that period (1618-1648) retained a note describing
the conditions. “We live like animals,
eating bark and grass”. Another said, “No one could have imagined that anything
like this would happen to us.” This went
on for thirty years with the most unbelievably cruel atrocities one could imagine.
History describes far more savage brutality
by Christian warriors than the heartlessly gruesome mass executions and beheadings
reported by ISIS.
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Finally, when their lust for revenge and purity of religion was
spent the “Christian” factions began trying to work out a treaty which included
16 European nation states, 140 imperial states and 38 different groups. They spent the first six months deciding who
would sit where and in what order each would enter the hall. After four years they agreed on what is called
the Westphalian Treaties. Its key provisions established the following:
·
The boundaries of sovereign states which for the
most part remain today.
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All of the religious factions were made equal
before the law.
·
Each state was given the right to determine its own
state religion while guaranteeing the right of Christian worship of the non-established
churches to hold public services during allotted hours and privately at their
will.
·
Each state had to accept responsibility for any
warlike acts of its citizens against any other sovereign state.
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A similar proposal was aired
by Joshua Landis. It has been totally rejected
by the combatants, their sectarian supporters, and the proxies that fund the
war. Now that the hopes of the Arab Spring millennial generation have been subverted
by even more repressive factions each believing God is on their side it‘s likely
they will continue to fight and die believing their faction will defeat all the
others or join some coalition that will.
My hope is a gloomy one. I hope that
eventually they will wear out and create some kind of treaty. I just hope they are smarter than the
Christians and do it in 30 years instead of 100.
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I am in agreement with a
couple of Middle East experts like Stephan Kinzer who recommends that despite
the horrific humanitarian disaster, US military involvement in this or any sectarian
war only prolongs that type of war. Besides, the Middle East doesn’t need
another reason to hate the US. As Robert
Baer points out, the 2003 US invasion is directly responsible for the Middle
East’s present destabilization. Yet given
time I see one of two things happening. All
sides will agree to get along and end their self-destructive aspirations or the
meanest will destroy the others and come looking for another enemy to destroy…the
US. However by all authorities neither
outcome will happen in 2015.
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I suggest that Obama’s Syrian
policy is driven more by deference rather than the indifference he is accused
of. US restraint shows respect for the gravity
of this Islamic conflict and the necessity of the competing interests to face
each other’s demands. Furthermore, US military inaction is not only prudent
based on its own recent military history but it shows tactical wisdom in light
of the ancient sectarian Christian war of 300 years ago. After all we may need our strength for what
happens when this is all over.