Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Understanding the War We Are in Today
    Understanding the War We Are in Today
    Understanding the War We Are in Today
    Ebook41 pages39 minutes

    Understanding the War We Are in Today

    By Martin J. Blickstein

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Carefully reasoned and sourced, the author reviews the historical origins of the conflicts in the Middle East. His review of the religious foundation of this war leads him to conclude that "it is imperative to recognize that there are people who are more anxious to die for religious theology than the west is for political ideology," and "the culprit here is not religious extremism but religion."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWorthy Shorts
    Release dateDec 9, 2010
    ISBN9781458177704
    Understanding the War We Are in Today

    Related to Understanding the War We Are in Today

    Related ebooks

    Politics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      How Has Migration Changed The World?

      Jul 16, 2020

      How Has Migration Changed The World?
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Global Millennium

      Apr 23, 2020

      Globalisation is a phenomenon that defines and challenges the modern world. Trade, technology, culture, conflict: today, all span continents and hemispheres. And the roots of this global connectedness stretch back much further than we might imagine.

      9 min read

    • Article

      The Scourge Of Civilisations

      Mar 14, 2024

      The Scourge Of Civilisations
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Crusade Against The Odds

      Oct 26, 2023

      The Crusade Against The Odds
      7 min read

    • Article

      The First Crusade Had Been Defeated?

      Apr 22, 2021

      Professor of Global History at Oxford University, Director of the Centre for Byzantine Research and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College. Author of The First Crusade: The Call From The East, and The Silk Roads: A New History Of The World Who w

      5 min read

    • Article

      Reconquista What’s In A Name?

      Apr 15, 2021

      The Emirate of Granada’s surrender in 1492 marked the formal end of Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula. Soon after, the conquerors began forced conversions of Muslims, culminating in the expulsion of all Muslims and Jews from Spain. The Christian v

      3 min read

    • Article

      The (surprisingly) modern Middle Ages

      Sep 2, 2021

      In the middle of the 16th century, the historian John Foxe looked back at the great sweep of time since the birth of Christ, and decided that it could be sliced into three chunks. History, he suggested, began with the “primitive time”, when Christian

      9 min read

    • Article

      Remember Mao's Famine, Forget Churchill's Racism: How The West Colonised Asian Minds

      Aug 22, 2021

      In late June and early July, First Nations communities in Canada found over 1,000 unmarked graves of children in Indian residential schools, which were run by the Roman Catholic Church from 1899 to 1997. This has led to activists burning Catholic chu

      6 min read

    • Article

      How To Lose A Civilisation

      Jun 18, 2020

      How To Lose A Civilisation
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Clash Of Civilisations?

      May 14, 2020

      A Clash Of Civilisations?
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Mound Builders

      Aug 9, 2022

      The Mound Builders
      4 min read

    • Article

      Is Africa A Prisoner Of Its Past?

      Jul 16, 2020

      Is Africa A Prisoner Of Its Past?
      8 min read

    • Article

      From Accord To Apartheid

      Jun 6, 2023

      From Accord To Apartheid
      19 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Mar 16, 2023

      Sam Willis's entertaining article about Charles Johnson's scandalous works popularising robbers, pirates and highwaymen (Murder and Mayhem in Georgian Britain, March) reignites a long controversy about the true identity of the author. Although the so

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Understanding the War We Are in Today

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Understanding the War We Are in Today - Martin J. Blickstein

      Understanding the War We Are in Today

      By Martin J. Blickstein

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2009 David Blickstein

      Published by Worthy Shorts

      The Online Private Press for Professionals

      on Smashwords

      Design and organizing elements copyright © 2009 by Worthy Shorts.

      Sale of this work in this imprint or design, except by Worthy Shorts or its agents, is prohibited.

      WS108

      Worthy Shorts ® is a registered trademark.

      For more information, visit www.worthyshorts.com

      This essay was written in the year 2006 and is published posthumously. It is dedicated to Martin J .Blickstein by his wife of more than fifty years, his son, his daughter-in-law, and his grandson.

      Rose Blickstein

      David Blickstein

      Patrica Lopez Blickstein

      Daniel Martin Blickstein

      My book, Anticipating Tomorrow describes the manner in which technology impacts the nontechnological world. Being in the 9th decade of my life with a ticking clock, I am not surprised by the clash of civilizations engendered by those transformations nor by the passion of the subsequent confrontations, of which Al Queda is a prime example. We call the people battling for modernity a national army. They call theirs an army of God. That dichotomy may seem a huge simplification but it goes straight to the heart of the issues.

      Our opponents can legitimately claim as much as 1/5 of the world's population as potential recruits. With such a fragmented antagonist who would we negotiate with? What would constitute victory with such a splintered adversary and how does one get all of them to recognize it? Who signs the peace treaty, and indeed can there be a general peace treaty? Considering the nature of our opposition, it isn't even off subject to ask how industrial powers that design and produce GPS guided missiles can defeat preindustrial polyglots many of whom still produce mostly opium, carpets and slaves and whom still deliver their products" by camel?

      The wars I have observed had an identifiable beginning and end. This one doesn't. The conflicts I am familiar with have identifiable goals on both sides. This one doesn't. The wars of my generation were between nations. This one isn't. Our wars were fought between uniformed armies. This one isn't. In my wars, religion was the excuse, not the reason. Religion is the fundamental, if not the only, rationale for this one. With all of those differences, it should be interesting to identify the distinctions and their consequences. It doesn't take much time to realize that the variance is based on a very long Muslim history which is quite divergent from that of Europe and for a profoundly fundamental reason. Most of the world's populations are separated by water, by land, by mountains, or by boundaries. The separations can be bridged by armies and tradesmen on horseback, in cars, in ships, or even by foot. The Middle East, outside of the Fertile Crescent, is separated by sand. It is not in banter that the camel is called the ship of the desert.

      Historically, villages grew around oases and were isolated from each other, even if only by a few miles of sand. In Europe, the original settlement was the citystate. In deserts, it was the village state. The description of nationhood was

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1