Islamic Reformation

The headlines from 1560 in Europe could have looked exactly like those from the Middle East today: “Religious Warfare Kills Thousands!” 

In Iraq, the Sunnis are slaughtering the Shia’ in a religious civil war at a rate even more prolific than when the Shia’ slaughtered the Sunnis after the fall of Sadaam (and not coincidently similarly to the 8^th century).

Christianity had its own period of mutual slaughter in a shared history based less on theology than on the nature of religion itself. If there is a lesson for us in this chaos it is in the destructive mixture of religion and politics. (I say this on the eve of a man who believes the universe is only 10,000 years old and that the theory of evolution is the handiwork of the devil is about to become the Republican whip in the House of Representatives).

Now Iran (Shia’) is asking if the U.S. would like to partner in fighting off ISIS – which I guess would make us an ally in the axis of evil and we would then have to bomb ourselves under the Bush Doctrine. Now the same fools who got us into Iraq in the first place want us to go back.

The truth is that the Kool-Aid most Americans drank back in the heady days of the “Bush Doctrine” is long gone, and after thousands of lives lost, tens of thousands of lives broken, over a trillion dollars spent we now know that Muslim countries given the “gift” of capitalism and democracy will not become civilized, let alone democratic.

Let’s be smart for once and stay out of it.