Wars and Rumors of Wars

But the time is not yet?

It is really disheartening, except for the war in Afganistan,riots and protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Lybia and Iran, the insurrection in Wisconsin, the fighting over cuts (including "Planned Parenthood")in the budgets for the rest of this year and the one for 2012 and other sundry happenings that most people tend to ignore there just isn't very much to write about. Is that what some writers call "Writer's Block?" Not being a writer, I wouldn't know.

On page 108 of volume 1, "Outline of History" from the "Pocket Library of the World's Essential Knowledge" written by Albert Sheppard and John Seybold Morris, published and copyrighted in 1929 by Funk and Wagnalls Company, is the following passage concerning King Alexander of Macedonia (Greece) and his intention of uniting the East and the West for the first time since the Tower of Babel.
"While these projects were going forward, they were nevertheless but minor parts of a larger plan. Arabia must be added as a Jewel to Alexander's Crown; and distant, thriving Phenician Carthage, on the North African shore of the Mediterranean, must perforce give up its isolation and take its place within this Empire. [Man proposes, but oftentime another power over which he has no control disposes.] Alexander's life at thirty-three had had more packed into it than ordinarily falls to the lot of the most adventurous life privileged to live its normal span of three-score years and ten". (On the eleventh of June, 323 B.C., while not yet thirty-three years of age he passed away.)

[Note] [That is probably where the phrase, used in conjunction with the budget (The President proposes and Congress disposes) comes from.]

Skipping ahead and beginning on page 219 we find these words: "Yet again in our story of civilization do we see West and East come into armed conflict. The Moslems had gained possession of the sacred places in and around Jerusalem. In its effort to rescue these places from the infidel, Europe almost tore itself from its foundations. Christendom hurled its power against the moslems.
By the close of the tenth century the Seljuk Turks were in possession of Palestine and Syria, and the holy places were in their hands. Pilgrims returned with stories of harrowing experiences at the hands of the Turks; some were robbed, others were brutally ill-treated, others were killed. Europe had cause to fear the brutal force of these Turks; Christians everywhere looked upon them as emissaries of Satan himself." [Note] Then came the crusades.
"For two hundred years -- with ebb and flo -- the tramp of Crusaders marching to the East resounded through Europe. The suffering and torture they endured no pen could describe. Motives were mixed and varied as they naturally would be. --- Prince, Noble and Knight thrilled to the great adventure; while many dreamed of large kingdoms carved out of fair Eastern Lands. But all in vain; the main objectives were never permenently realized; the Near East still lies under the rule of Islam." [Note] With some changes those fair Eastern Lands are still under the control of those Moslems (Islam).

Another chapter of this story belongs to the Knights Templar but that is for another time. Thanks for your time and input. Stay tuned. --William