Who said: "Kill them all?" The actual quote (question) was who said, "Kill them all. God will know his own!" And, the answer is that the quote is attributed to Arnaud-Armaury, the Abbot of Citeaux, who was the spiritual advisor to the Albigensian Crusade, according to the above sited source.
The above source tells us that, "Pope Innocent III ordered the Albigensian Crusade, to purge southern France of the Cathari heretics. It began in the summer of 1209, with their first target - the town of Beziers. The Catholic faithful in Beziers refused to give up the Catharis among themselves. The crusaders invaded. When Arnaud-Amaury was asked whom to kill he replied, 'Kill them all. God will know his own.' They did. The crusaders slaughtered nearly everyone in town, over 20,000, either burned or clubbed to death. Thus they achieved their goal of killing the estimated 200 heretics who were hiding in the town among the Catholic faithful. The brutal crusade continued on for the next twenty years. Eventually the Catholics devised a new approach for dealing with the remaining Cathari heretics in France. It was called 'the Inquisition'".
Sound at all familiar? Sound, maybe, just a little like Dubya's and Don's strategy in the Middle East; in the most Holy places of the Middle East. If we kill them all, then we'll (Americans) be much, much safer as we take our kids to soccer practice; as we mow the lawn on Saturday; as we go to the market on Thursday; as we worship -- oh, those moral values! -- in our churches on Sunday.
Listening to talk radio this morning as Melissa and I were returning from our run, the news that Colin Powell had resigned was announced. Now, does that really surprise anyone?
A story in the Sunday edition of the Denver Post reported that "... the six-day assault [in Fallujah] has turned much of the city into ruins and left many of its remaining residents dying of thirst and starvation, a Red Crescent spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.
"Even after the last building is cleared in Fallujah and the ghostly city is finally reopened to civilians, peace cannot be guaranteed, said Lt. Col. Patrick Malay. He said he is sure insurgents will return to the city of 250,000 because there is no way to seal off the town."
The italics, above, are mine.
Now, the holy war against the infidel is moving on to Mosul, Ramadi, Tal Afar, Samarra, Lafiiya. And -- oh, do we really not understand this?? -- back to Fallujah, back to Baghdad, back to Ramadi, back to Mosul and then back... You get the point.
For every so-called insurgent that is killed in Iraq, there are five to take his or her place; there are generations yet to be born to take his or her place.
Dubya and Don, Condi and the rest of the crew just don't understand; just don't see it; just don't understand that the issue of religious fundamentalism -- a force greater than any politician's jingoism; a force greater than any homespun, charmingly syntactically challenged Commander in Chief -- yes, religious fundamentalism provides no wiggle room for compromise. God is God is God.
Which, of course, brings us to James Dobson.
It was Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of the conservative Christian organization, Focus on the Family with its headquarters in Colorado Springs, who articulated best the issue which has captured the imagination, and caused the political juices to flow of Colorado's own U.S. Congresswoman, Marilyn Musgrave and her ilk in a direct-mail appeal to 2.5 million people on January 20, 2004, the same day Dubya presented the State of the Union speech. "The homosexual activist movement," Dobson wrote, "is poised to administer a devastating and potentially fatal blow to the traditional family. And sadly, very few Christians in position of responsibility are willing to use their influence to save it." Dobson was, of course, referring to the issue of same-sex marriage.
One wonders that if the traditional family in America is so damned fragile and open to a devastating and potentially fatal blow because some same-sex partners want to share this traditional family model; one wonders why same-sex couples would even want to bother.
But, the potency of religious fundamentalism cannot be ignored; cannot be just glossed over as we each read whatever newspaper it is we drink our morning coffee over.
This, from the Sunday Denver Post is a pretty clear indication that what I had reported earlier is, in fact, what we have to look forward to:
"Stephen Pizzo tells us, via AlterNet, that: 'The GOP's relationship with the religious right is a rock hard practical/tactical alliance that in reality has little to do with sharing common values. (Pro-family? Pro-marriage? Would anyone like to do a study on how many GOP politicians are divorced or have gotten caught cheating on their spouses? I will bet the difference between the Values Party and the Dems would be indistinguishable.)
'Besides the dishonesty beneath the values business there are very real reasons to worry about this clearly successful tactic. When a nation's leaders pander to fundamentalists they eventually must either deliver on their demagoguery or or face their wrath. Politicians who may have thought they rode an elephant to power quickly discover they are really on the back of a hungry tiger -- a tiger they must now either have to feed or be eaten.'"
Now, sorry everyone who took the Thomas Jefferson quote voiced by Barbra Streisand as something immensely significant, I must report to you that Barbra's elipses (...) have, rightly so, qualified the quote to whatever interpretation you wish to give it.
Here's what Streisand quoted from Jefferson:
"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt......If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."
Here's what actually preceded the words Streisand quoted:
"Seeing, therefore, that an association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry, seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel with, I had rather keep our New England associates for that purpose than to see our bickerings transferred to others. They are circumscribed within such narrow limits, & their population so full, that their numbers will ever be the minority, and they are marked, like the Jews, with such a peculiarity of character as to constitute from that circumstance the natural division of our parties."
Here's what Streisand eliminated with the ellipsis:
"But who can say what would be the evils of a scission, and when & where they would end? Better keep together as we are, hawl off from Europe as soon as we can, & from all attachments to any portions of it. And if we feel their power just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be the happiest situation in which we can exist."
Jefferson closed his letter to John Taylor with a P. S. "It is hardly necessary to caution you to let nothing of mine get before the public. A single sentence, got hold of by the Porcupines, will suffice to abuse & persecute me in their papers for months."
Whatever you take from the above, I can only suggest that who was considered a Republican in 1798, may, just may not be considered a Republican today. Anyway, I do believe in beholding to the accuracy of history; to the exactness of the words that were actually spoken.
Finally, it was only twenty-eight degrees as Melissa and I circumnavigated Berkeley Lake this morning at 6:45 a.m. The lake was clear, calm, gray. The sun was almost immense; almost blinding. (We have, alas, let go of Daylight Savings Time!) And, as we ran against the frigid, but bright -- so bright -- light of this early morning's adventure, I wondered if our troops, if our boys and girls, our women and men who are serving in Iraq as soldiers in service to the United State of America really understand the polemic; really understand the utlimate issue of this particular little conflict they find themselves involved in, worlds away from their wives and children and siblings and parents and lovers and partners and, oh, so far away from just the smell of their home; of the smell and feel of the homeplace here in America; here where their hearts remain in spite of where their physical selves happen to be.
If they do understand, how do they reconcile the melancholy that realization must represent?
If they don't understand, then, by God, I'll bet they get a Christmas card from James Dobson, articulating Jesus's argument for a woman's right NOT to choose; His argument for a Constitutional amendment denying fundamental Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to same-sex partners.
Ah, kill them all. That's the solution. In Palestine, too. Kill them all. God is, after all, on our side!
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