SYRIA IN LIGHT OF EUROPE"S SECT.-WARS

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 16^th 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.

·         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.