In September...

The title is not original, but inspire by Walker's post.

Since I don't hang out on Twitter anymore, he pointed me to this post by ACKs creator Alexander Macris:

On the 11th of September, 1683, an army of 150,000 Ottoman Muslims under Kara Mustafa attacked Vienna, defended by only 11,000 Christian soldiers. The defenders held out until King John Sobieski III of Poland arrived with a relief force.

Sobieski led the largest cavalry charge in history, his force of Winged Hussars charging down Bald Mountain to route and destroy the Ottoman forces. The glorious victory of Christendom is recounted in the Sabaton song "Winged Hussars".

318 years later, Osama Bin Laden struck back in revenge for the Muslim defeat at the Battle of Vienna, annihilating the Twin Towers in New York City on 9/11.

War has a long memory. Never forget! And never forget the day the winged hussars arrived.

He, of course, links to Sabaton's "Winged Hussars"

I know it is easy for us to scoff at tthe "never forget" crowd, both for allowing ourselves to be so easily led into globalist enterprises from which we're still only getting ourselves extricated, and for the nation-building we so foolishly attempted.

Yet, and yet, if we take seriously the culture throughout the middle east, no response, no attempt to close out Iraq and pummel Al-Quaeda, would also have been foolish. Worse, as Macris points out, the middle east has a long memory. Believing isolationism would save us is to ignore centuries of depradations and expansionism on the part of Islam with no more provocation than the belief they could get away with it. They certainly have not forgotten, and it only takes one side to start a war. The least tolerant will win, and the capability to hold a grudge culturally for centuries is certainly the ability to be intolerant towards enemies and prey.

Do not believe those who excuse the strikes, and especially be cautious of those who obscure and hide centuries of bloodshed, piracy, and slavery.

Do them the respect of treating them as, through statement and action, they see fit to treat us. Remember and hold fast that these are enemies that hold grudges across centuries. They may not, tritely, "hate us for our freedoms," but they do hate, and ultimately, it's because we are not them. We refuse to become them.

Because all bullies hate those who say "no."