"ISIS and The Thirty Years' War" Topic

"Munster is one of Germany's prettiest cities, its cascading red tile roofs a symbol of European prosperity. It wasn't always this way—over 90 percent of Munster's old city was destroyed by Allied bombers in October of 1944 while, six months later, a British tank brigade demolished what was left. But that fight is a footnote to Munster's other historical claim, as the cradle of Christian radicalism—with the city once ruled by a bloody ISIS-style dictatorship.

In 1534, John of Leiden, a radical Protestant, led his followers into the city center and proclaimed himself king of an Anabaptist theocracy. Over the next weeks he instituted polygamy, required that everyone be re-baptized and proclaimed Munster the "New Jerusalem." A reign of terror took hold: women who didn't want new husbands were raped or beheaded, non-believers were executed, and dissenters fled. The new theocracy appealed to thousands, who flocked to the new Christian caliphate from southern Germany and Holland in anticipation of the end of days…"
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Amicalement
Armand

I lived I Munster when I served the British army

Jules

I like their cheese.

The only problem is that was 1534 and this is 2016. Even in his own time he was considered a "NUT". In 1535, the insurrection was suppressed after a siege of the fortified city, and John was captured, tortured and executed. So when does ISIS get it's due reward.

Millinarians. Heh, radical kooks, all of them, in every place and time. The medieval period was chock full of them. Actually, let me say that the radicals always get an undue amount of attention, because they are radical. Looking back, it seems like the middle ages had a lot of these religious whackos. But they probably weren't anymore common then than now. And now (my short six decades on Earth), we have Jimmy Jones and David Koresh, the Hale Bop comet bunch, and a raft of failed "messiahs" such as Brian David Mitchell.

"…But they probably weren't anymore common then than now…"

Totally Agree!!

Amicalement
Armand

When we invaded Iraq, forty percent of Baghdad's population, which was a quarter of all of the people in the country, was the result of mixed marriages—Baghdad's Iraqis called them ‘Sushis.'"

I didn't know that. The author quotes someone noting that the Sunni-Shia divide isn't fueling instability, it's the instability fueling the Sunni-Shia divide.

There can be no doubt that destabilizing Iraq in 2003 (more than 10 years ago!) was a colossal screwup. For all the skill demonstrated in the initial invasion, the botching of the immediate post-invasion administration (de-Ba'ath-ization, etc) – painfully obvious even at the time – will go down as one of the biggest foreign policy mistakes of our time.

darthfozzywig:
The same could have been said of Serbs and Bosnians before the Western supported break-up of Yugoslavia. The West is very good at stirring up division and violence to further its interests and many people are forced to live with, or die from, the consequences of our machinations. I wish wargames could better portray the effects and affects of war on those caught in the middle of military conflicts. But then I guess it would be pretty hard to enjoy ourselves playing with toy soldiers. I miss the innocence of youth and gnorance.
Rod Robertson

Hopefully it won't take 30 years to exterminate Daesh, AQ, etc. … But it looks like this will not happen anytime soon.

IMO Kyote, the 1st Big US error was supporting the Muj vs. the USSR. They should have been left to bleed each other out.

GW II was the second strat error, IMO …

Of course, hindsight is generally 20/20 …

I'll make a prediction on #3 – The Iran Nuc deal …
But time will tell …

Oh my other prediction is tonight's the Lotto Number will be 369 145 781 …

Yes, I do and mentioned it on another thread … The only "positive" thing that the Afghans have done !

My post on that thread … Yes, the Afghan drug dealers have kept the Persians well supplied. So much so they have a very serious problem with drug addiction. I'm not too sorry to say, I don't have a problem with this.
I find it very interesting how some islamists only follow some of the Koran. Or just change things to suit their needs, etc., …
No doubt other religions do the same … But generally other religions don't have a virulent lunatic fringe that thinks it's alright to kill those whose beliefs are different than theirs. Or it's OK to enslave others as sex slaves, etc. … And in most cases it's other moslems … sad … very sad …