Month: July 2021

Categories
Letters

Letter to Kathimerini

Greetings, 
My name is Theodore G. Karakostas and I have written to you before. I am a Greek American writer and the author of threebooks. Since 2013, I have been active on the issue of Hagia Sophia. I am writing to you in response to the July 23 article on UNESCOand Hagia Sophia. 


I have been in touch with UNESCO since 2013 when Turkey converted the Church-Museum of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond into a Mosque. I have written to UNESCO’s office in New York and spoken with some of their reps over the phone. In March 2015 while on a visit to Paris, I visited UNESCO’s headquarters to discuss Hagia Sophia. 


I raised my concerns over Hagia Sophia based on three particular problems created by the Turkish government. First, they converted the Hagia Sophia of Trebizond into a Mosque in 2013 a sure sign that THE Hagia Sophia would eventually be converted. The Turks also converted tow other Hagia Sophia Church-Museums in Nicea-Iznik and Adrianople-Edirne into Mosques. Many of their politicians at that time openly called for Hagia Sophia to be made into a Mosque and large crowds had gathered in front of Saint Justinian’s Church to pray.


In person in Paris I was specifically told by UNESCO’s chief of Europe and North America that Turkish officials had assured UNESCO that Hagia Sophia would not be converted into a Mosque. Previous to this, their reps from the New York office had told me that in fact Turkey as a sovereign country was entitled to do as they wished with any site within their borders. Furthermore, during the month of Ramadan in the spring of 2016, Koranic prayers were read in Hagia Sophia.


UNESCO had seven years to protest the Turkish conversion of Hagia Sophia but declined to do so. They wrote a letter to Turkish officials in 2020 just a week or so before Hagia Sophia was officially set to be converted. Way too late for them to protest as the Turkish government had fully committed itself to the conversion of Hagia Sophia and was prepared for any and all international criticism.


This latest statement on the part of UNESCO expressing “deepest regret” and “intense concern” is weak. UNESCO should be adopting a much harsher stance especially since news reports indicate that Turkey is no longer providing for the upkeep of Hagia Sophia since Justinian’s Church is filthy and there are cables all over the place. It is only a matter of time before the Erdogan government destroys the magnificent and divinely inspired iconography that serves to glorify Christ! 


UNESCO should be thinking of imposing sanctions of some kind on Turkey. Their statements should be criticized for failing to recognize and acknowledge the Greek Orthodox origins of the Great Church. As I told UNESCO’s Chief of Europe and North America in 2015, Hagia Sophia is a product of the Gospel and Orthodox theology. UNESCO has handled the issue of Hagia Sophia very poorly but can still do the right thing by documenting the mistreatment of the Great Church today and raising real protests with a much harsher tone than the weak statement that it has just released.
 

Theodore G. Karakostas 

Categories
faith

Constantinople’s Amnesia

Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America gave a speech at the international religious freedom summit 2021. In this speech, he criticized the Russian Orthodox Church and its relationship with the Russian government which is ironic as Archbishop Elpidophoros is one of the most important hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The relationship of the Russian Church to the Russian state is based on the concept of “symphonia”, also known as “symphony” or “synergy”.

The concept of “symphonia” came to fruition during the sixth century under the Emperor Justinian of Constantinople. “Symphonia” is the concept of Church-State partnership in which the Church and the State work together for the common good while being administered separately. Archbishop Elphidophoros appears to imply that the Russian Church is under the influence of the Russian government which is simply not true.

As a Greek Orthodox loyal to the real spiritual heritage of Constantinople (which has been betrayed by the Patriarchate) I view contemporary Russia as the modern Byzantium. Russia adopted the spiritual heritage of Constantinople in the year 988 AD when the Russians received the faith from Emperor Basil II. Today, Russia flies the double headed eagle on the imperial flag of Russia and has defended Christians in Syria who were victims of genocide.

Russia also rose to the occasion to help save Cyprus in 2004 when the Russian Ambassador to the United Nations vetoed the Annan Plan at the Security Council which the Bush administration and the Blair government of England tried to impose on the Cypriots. The Archbishop should be reminded that the Russian Orthodox Church has in the past condemned the destruction of Greek Orthodox Churches in Cyprus by the Turks. When has Patriarch Bartholomew ever condemned the destruction of Cypriot Churches by the Turks?

Archbishop Elpidophoros further proceeded to discuss the schism in Orthodoxy before a secular audience of non Orthodox Christians. He defended the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s bestowal of autocephaly on unordained and defrocked clergy in Ukraine in violation of canon law. This appeal to the secular non Orthodox world is a continuation of the unscrupulous machinations of Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Elpidophoros. Very few Orthodox bishops, priests and theologians agree with the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew in Ukraine.

Many of those who do such as the Archbishop of Cyprus and the Patriarch of Alexandria have been heavily bullied into reversing their original stances. Archbishop Elpidophoros has no business criticizing the Russian Church. “Symphonia” as conceived by Saint-Emperor Justinian of Constantinople defines Church-State relations in Russia and did so in modern Greece up until the rise of the Greek atheists of PASOK and Syriza.

The Russian Church is acting in accordance with the way the Church of Constantinople acted in the Byzantine Empire. “Symphonia” is Orthodox. Papism on the other hand which seems to influence the behavior of the present Patriarchate of Constantinople is not only foreign to Orthodoxy, but is heretical. Archbishop Elpidophoros espouses the notorious doctrine that the Ecumenical Patriarch is “first without equals”. The Russian Church is acting in accordance with the precedence established by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire.

The Church of Constantinople tragically is acting like the Roman Catholic Papacy by claiming total authority over the whole of the autocephalous and local Churches that make up the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Church has been calling for the convening of an ecumenical council to resolve the schism in Orthodoxy. The Patriarch of Constantinople has rejected calls for an ecumenical council.

Within Orthodoxy, ecumenical councils represent the highest form of authority. This means that only the universal church in which all the local Orthodox Churches are gathered together may make rulings that are fully binding. The Patriarchate of Constantinople has made a mockery of the conciliar tradition by claiming authority in Ukraine that it does not have and by refusing to put its case before a council in which all the Orthodox Churches are present to make a ruling.

The tradition of “symphonia” is by no means perfect. The Byzantine Empire has numerous example of Christian Emperors who lived immoral lives and engaged in the murders and mutilations of their predecessors and other opponents. Likewise, Russia today has its imperfections in the political sphere. Of course, Christians live in the world which is fallen and tainted by man’s fallen nature so no Orthodox society can claim perfection.

While the Russian Church is a partner of the Russian government through the process of “symphonia” at least the Russian government is Orthodox. The Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese have aligned themselves with the American State Department that over time has supported the ethnic cleansing of the Patriarchate’s own flock in Constantinople, the invasion of Cyprus, the bombing of Serbia and the destruction of Serbian Orthodoxy in Kosovo, and the destruction of Christianity in Syria and Iraq. Furthermore, the American government and the European Union have been bullying Christian countries (Orthodox and Roman Catholic) into accepting the abominations of abortion, gay marriage, and transgenderism.

The Russian Church has condemned the immoral social policies being promoted by the west. Archbishop Elpidophoros recently presided over the divine liturgy in an Episcopal Cathedral in NewYork which has actively supported the gay and transgender agenda and which displayed the pagan rainbow flags. There are those of us who consider ourselves the spiritual children of the once Great Church of Constantinople and pray that it returns to the light once again.

As things stand now, the Russian Church represents the leadership of Orthodoxy based on the fact that is is heavily active in evangelizing throughout parts of the world and is bearing witness to the gospel before the onslaught of the neo pagan agenda coming from the west. The Russian Church holds the fifth place in rank among the dyptychs of the Orthodox Church. Constantinople holds the first place.

Whereas the Russian Church is partners with an Orthodox government the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America are partnered with the atheistic and pagan State Department and the anti Christian Democratic Party. Constantinople would regain leadership if it emulated the example of the Russian Church, and stopped declaring war against it.

Categories
faith

Where Are You Archbishop Christodoulos?

As if Greece and Cyprus did not have enough problems with Turkey threatening both of these Hellenic states, the Synod of the Church of Greece has been threatening bishops who have refused to recognize the schismatic entity in Ukraine that calls itself “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”. The Synod of the Church of Greece accuses these bishops of breaking the unity between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Church.

This is utterly absurd. The two previous Archbishops of Athens Serapheim (1974-1998) and Christodoulos (1998-2008) both stood up to the bullying of Patriarch Bartholomew. Were these highly esteemed primates guilty of breaking the unity between the Church of Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate? The bishops in Greece that are being bullied by the cowardly synod of Archbishop Ieronymos have listed the violations of Canon Law and Orthodox ecclesiology by Patriarch Bartholomew through his actions in invading the canonical territory of the Russian Church in Ukraine.

This is absolute madness. At a time when the territorial integrity of both Greece and Cyprus are being challenged by Turkey, the Church of Greece is being attacked by Patriarch Bartholomew who happens to be a citizen of the Turkish aggressor state. Greeks need to put aside their sentimentality regarding the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

In his newly published, “The ecclesial Crisis in Ukraine”, Metropolitan Nikiforos of the Church of Cyprus dissects the canonical violations by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukraine. While correctly providing evidence and citing canon law to demonstrate why Constantinople is wrong in Ukraine, his eminence bends over backwards to emphasize his love for the Church of Constantinople.

I also have a profound love for the Church and City of Constantinople, but sentimentality should not blind those of us who are Greek of the terrible wrongs that have been and continue to be perpetrated by Patriarch Bartholomew. The cowardly Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and other bishops chose to recognize the schismatic abomination in Ukraine as a “church” at the expense of the real Ukrainian Orthodox Church after Patriarch Bartholomew and American officials such as Mike Pompeo and Geoffrey Pyatt demanded they do so.

The moral standing of the Orthodox Church of Greece has fallen to its lowest standing since the era of the military dictatorship when canonical bishops were forcibly removed and replaced by unscrupulous supporters of the junta in violation of canon law. Archbishop Christodoulos recognized that young people in Greece had been alienated from the Church by those particular “bishops” that had been close to the junta.

Archbishop Christodoulos formally apologized at his enthronement in 1998 for the Church’s alienation of young people. The late Archbishop was very humble, charismatic, and pious. At the present time the European Union is bullying Hungary and Poland into fully accepting the gay and transgender ideology. Where are the voices of Archbishop Ieronymos and the synod of the Church of Greece opposing gay marriage and transgenderism?

In 2017, when the atheist Prime Minister Tsipras formally legalized gay marriage and transgender ideology, most of the bishops of the Church of Greece were silent. In the year 2000, the visionary Archbishop Christodoulos challenged the European Union and the anti Christian and anti Hellenic policies of Prime Minister Simitis. The late Archbishop called hundred of thousands of faithful Greeks out to protest in Athens and Thessaloniki against the effort to remove religion from identity cards.

The European Union went from demanding the removal of religion from identity cards to demanding the teaching of homosexuality and transgender ideology in the schools of member states of the European Union. Where are you Archbishop Christodoulos? See how your successor and his bishops remain silent as the Greek government embraces the anti Christian morality and neo pagan ideology of the Europeans? See how Archbishop Ieronymos and other bishops take orders from the American embassy in order to destroy the spiritual brotherhood between the Greeks and the Russians?

Those bishops and priests in Greece who refuse to bow to the bullying dictates of Patriarch Bartholomew are confessors to the faith and worthy examples to faithful Greeks throughout the world. May they persist and stand strong in defense of the faith of Christ and the Greek Orthodox tradition in these evil times.

Categories
books

The Church Crisis

Book Review

The Ecclesial Crisis in Ukraine and its Solution According to the Sacred Canons by Metropolitan of Kykkos and Tylliria Nikiforos, Cyprus

Holy Trinity Seminary Press. 2021

His eminence Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos, a hierarch of the Church of Cyprus has published an important work on the Church crisis in Ukraine. His eminence addresses several aspects of the Church crisis. His eminence discusses the history of the Church of Ukraine and how it was transferred from the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Russian Church in 1686. His eminence does a masterful job regarding the history of the Ukrainian Church which was until 2018 part of the Russian Church without controversy.

Other aspects of the Church crisis that are addressed include the delicate matter of how a Church achieves autocephalous status. His eminence rightfully emphasizes the importance of the authority of the universal Church through an ecumenical council to establish an autocephalous Church. His eminence points out that the Ecumenical Patriarch may only act to recognize a Church as autocephalous if it has been approved by the universal Church.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate insists that it has the right to hear appeals from throughout the Orthodox world. His eminence asserts that the Ecumenical Patriarch has no such right. Furthermore, his eminence makes clear that the Patriarchate of Moscow was fully justified in breaking communion with Constantinople.

His eminence addresses the issue of who is the head of the Orthodox Church. Jesus Christ is the head of the Orthodox Church and not the Ecumenical Patriarch. His eminence also emphasizes the importance of the conciliar tradition of the Orthodox Church.

As with many other writers and commentators on the Church crisis, his eminence makes reference to the well known geopolitical interests that have served to trigger the events that brought about the crisis. Unfortunately, this issue is mentioned only in passing and is not addressed. Regardless, this is a very important publication regarding the Ukrainian Church crisis coming from one of the most important bishops in the Greek speaking world.

His eminence makes references to church history and canon law, and affirms the righteousness of the Orthodox position which is held not only by the Russian Orthodox Church but by most of the Orthodox world. This is a publication that is solidly Orthodox and which will hopefully contribute to awakening the Greek Orthodox world from its slumber.

Categories
Analysis

The Rising Turkish Threat

5 + 3: Turkic Superstate in Caucasus, Central Asia Under NATO Tutelage
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Erdogan’s-new-Ottoman-empire-advances-in-the-Caucasus-and-Central-Asia-53560.html

It appears that Turkish influence is growing in Central Asia and Russian influence is lessening. This is problematic as is the remarkable lack of support by the Russians for the Armenians during last year’s war with Azerbaijan. The Russians have been giving Turkey a free hand against Armenia.

It is hard to see what the Russians have to gain from this. Turkey is the promotor of jihadism. Ankara is gradually replacing Islamic State as the center of the new Caliphate. The Russians fought to destroy jihadism in Syria but are now tolerating a new from of jihadism being promoted by Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The Russians are not the only ones that deserve criticism here. The United States has not exactly done anything to counter Turkey and Azerbaijan. True, the Biden White House recognized the Armenian Genocide but in the aftermath lifted an embargo that had been imposed on Azerbaijan in the early 1990’s. Appeasement of Turkey remains in effect in Washington.

The problem that Greece, Armenia, and Cyprus face is the fact that Turkey’s geostrategic position continues to enthrall both Washington and Moscow. Turkey has benefitted from its borders going back to the Ottoman Empire. Under the Erdogan regime, both Moscow and Washington have been humiliated and slapped around.

The Turks ordered the downing of a Russian plane over Syria in 2015. They supported the enemies of the government in Damascus (Russia’s ally) during the Syrian war. They supported Islamic State which should have enraged both Washington and Moscow. Turkey continues to humiliate both Washington and Moscow both of whom seek the influence of Erdogan.

Turkish influence continues to grow over the Turkish speaking Republics of Central Asia (see the links above) and over the Muslim world, although there are countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates who are resisting Turkey’s expanding influence. Washington and Moscow will come to regret that they both had opportunities to crush and curtail the influence of Erdogan’s Turkey but refused to do so for their own self serving and short term interests.

Greeks also seem to misunderstand the American foreign policy establishment’s commitment to Turkey. American-Turkish ties have been badly strained during the Erdogan era, but American officials have not figured out how to conduct policies in Central Asia and the Middle East without Turkey. Some Greek Americans are under the impression that the Democratic Party will be anti Turkish. Such a belief is based in the realm of fantasy because domestic American politics cannot penetrate the long and committed American policies that have been built up for at least a century based on Turkish support.

On the positive side, American-Turkish relations have deteriorated but that is because of the rise of radical Islam in Turkey and because of Erdogan’s arrogance and megalomania, not because either political party in America has become pro Greek. It appears that the new cold war between Washington and Moscow has benefitted Turkey. The Erdogan government has been very effective in playing the Americans and the Russians off one another.

The reality is that the world is a vicious place dominated by the powerful. Turkey retains a great deal of power and influence. For a brief time as the Cold War was coming to an end, there were signs that America’s use for Turkey was coming to an end. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait however led the US to depend on Turkey for use of the military base at Incerlik.

The Greeks and the Armenians still have strong cases to make but need to work hard in both Washington and Moscow. The Ukrainian Church crisis has complicated Greek relations with both Washington and Moscow. Greece needs for that issue to be resolved even if it means disavowing Patriarch Bartholomew. Greece and Cyprus have other pressing concerns beyond Patriarch Bartholomew’s claims of power over the Orthodox Church.

The Church issue is relevant here because it exposes America as a semi colonial power maintaining an unhealthy influence in Greece. The Church issue is also turning Greeks against Russians. The Church issue must end and then Athens can engage both Washington and Moscow.

There are reasons for optimism. Erdogan has demonstrated a pattern of irrational thought. In 2011, he nearly started a war with Israel after supporting the flotilla attack on the Israelis. In 2015, he shot down the Russian plane, and during the war in Syria invaded the Kurdish region which was then occupied by American forces.

At some point, one has to believe that someone will finally stand up to Turkish bullying and aggression. Turkish influence is on the rise and needs to be countered. The abandonment of the Syrian Kurds by even the Trump administration and the abandonment of Armenia by Russia are truly disappointing.

However, the signs of tension between Turkey and both Washington and Moscow do exist. The challenge for the Greeks is to engage both of them, to remain friendly with both, and to work to convince both of them of the Turkish threat.

Categories
Letters

Letter To Patriots American News

Dear Sir, 

One of the most admirable aspects of the foreign policy of the Trump administration was the former President’s willingness to challenge the Islamic State. That murderous organization was responsible for the genocide of the Christians of Syria and Iraq. The fates of the Christians of Syria and Iraq occurred one century after the Turks perpetrated genocide against millions of Christian Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians in Anatolia. Prominent American officials during that time documented the genocide of the Christians. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau who served in Constantinople was very active in condemning the slaughter of the Christians, as were other American officials such as the American Consul to Smyrna George Horton. Horton wrote a book about the Genocide of the Christians called “The Blight of Asia”. 


Other prominent Americans of the time included Edward Hale Bierstadt who wrote a book called, “The Great Betrayal” documenting how western foreign policy betrayed the Christians and colluded with the murderous Turkish Army of Mustafa Kemal. Horton himself who served in the city of Smyrna documented the deliberate policy of the Turkish Kemalists to massacre the Christian populations. This is important for America today because there is still an opportunity to rescue American foreign policy interests from the Turks who have way too much influence over the foreign policy establishment. 


Turkey is clearly emerging as the jihadist power in the Middle East and is gradually becoming the successor to the now defeated “Caliphate”. Turkey is now directing other jihadist states such as Azerbaijan in its war of aggression against Armenia. The Azerbaijani war against Armenia last year resulted in the occupation of Armenian territory and subsequent atrocities against Armenian soldiers and civilians alike. The rise of both Turkey and Azerbaijan diminishes the defeat of the Islamic State as new jihadist entities are arising in their stead. 


Turkey has been using Syrian jihadists to fight on the Azerbaijani side against the Armenians. This makes Turkey a sponsor of jihadist terrorism. Previous to this, Turkey was a supporter of the Islamic State. Columbia University in New York published an entire report detailing the support that Ankara gave to the Caliphate at the height of its murderous reign. Turkey has also been using Syrian terrorists as proxies in Libya. The latest news on Turkey is that it is using child soldiers in its various military campaigns. Child soldiers have been used repeatedly by jihadist movements including Islamic State and the Taliban. 


In addition to posing a threat toward the Christian nation of Armenia, Turkey poses a significant threat to Greece and Cyprus. Turkey has openly claimed the islands of Greece which have been populated by ethnic Greeks since classical times. In the territories of Cyprus which Turkey has occupied since Ankara invaded that island Republic in 1974, over 200,000 Greek Cypriots were ethnically cleansed and over five hundred and fifty Greek and Armenian Churches and Monasteries have been destroyed. 


The foreign policy establishment has always supported Turkey and continues to back Ankara despite its proven record as a jihadist supporter of terrorism. American foreign policy reform is long overdue. American foreign policy should emphasize the human rights of Christians living in the Near East as well as the security of Christian countries such as Armenia, Cyprus, and Greece. American diplomacy was once served by honorable men such as Henry Morgenthau and George Horton who were advocates for oppressed Christians under the Islamic rule of the Turks. Unfortunately, their moral voices lost out to the anti Christian interests of the establishment which remain in effect up to the present day. 
America has an interest in the survival of Christian communities and homelands from the increasingly aggressive designs of jihadist Turkey and Azerbaijan. 
                           

Theodore G. Karakostas 

Categories
political

The Legacy Of Donald Rumsfeld

Former Secretary of Defense and war criminal Donald Rumsfeld died at the age of eighty eight years old. The policies carried out by Rumsfeld and the administration he served demonstrate what can happen when ideology based on utopian fantasies supplants reality. Rumsfeld served in the administration of George W. Bush, the worst President in American history.

Rumsfeld was brought on board by his friend and sociopathic Vice President Dick Cheney. Rumsfeld was allied with neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith. After the 9/11 attacks, Cheney and Rumsfeld pushed for an invasion of Iraq, despite the fact that Al Quada was being protected by the government of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Shared responsibility for the destruction of Iraq and the Middle East comes from former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell went before the United Nations to make a case for the invasion of Iraq based on false evidence that Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction. Rumsfeld was one of a large number of villains in the Bush administration.

Like the neocons and the rest of the Bush foreign policy team, Rumsfeld was a utopian. The belief existed in the minds of Rumsfeld and the others that Iraq would become a democracy and a model for the Muslim world in the aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. The reality that Iraq was a fractured society of three communities (Sunni, Shiite, Kurds) that despised one another was something that was never understood by the utopians of the Bush-Cheney foreign policy team.

Rumsfeld was instrumental in the adoption of the use of torture. The American system of justice does not permit torture on the grounds that the introduction of such methods could be a slippery slope on the road to dictatorship. Rumsfeld’s Department of Defense was instrumental in the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.

If there was one episode that genuinely demonstrated how utterly deranged the officials of the Bush-Cheney administration were, it was the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal. Apparently, the administration believed that stripping Muslim men and forcing them to undergo humiliating treatment and sexual abuse while American women looked on with amusement was a good idea. The Bush administration’s obscene war is accurately symbolized by the pornographic pictures and videos that showed what had taken place at Abu Ghraib.

Middle Eastern experts understood the realities of Iraq. Iraq was an artificial state not easy held together because of the rivalry among the three major communities. Rumsfeld and his associates had no use for reality because ultimately the foreign policy elite in Washington have no understanding of religion or nationalism. George W. Bush may have been born again, but his administration was by no means Christian.

The Iraq war led to a horrific civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. The Iraqi President (a Shiite) encouraged attacks on the Sunni community. Soon the organization known as “Al Quada in Mesopotomia (the forerunner of Islamic State) came into being and began slaughtering Shiites and other opponents.

The Democratic Party had the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the Republican Party but did not do so. The Obama administration stupidly intervened in Libya and Syria. The Islamic State which was able to take over large parts of Iraq because of the invasion of 2003, also took over large parts of Syria.

For the last five years the Democratic Party has been promoting hatred against the Russians. Their fanaticism resembles the fanaticism represented by the likes of Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld and his fellow psychopath Dick Cheney did not understand Iraq. Likewise, the Democrats do not understand Russia.

It is because of the war mongering represented by the likes of Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden that Donald Trump began to look good. Both Hillary and Joe incidentally voted in favor of the Iraq invasion in 2003. Both of them also have been provoking Russia.

The neoconservative war in Iraq and the subsequent intervention in Syria can be seen as modern versions of the Crusades. Nearly one thousand years ago, fanatical Europeans believed that invading Palestine and other areas of the Middle East and committing genocide against Muslims and Jews made them good Christians. Likewise, Republican and Democratic administrations today believe that instigating wars of aggression in the name of Democracy will somehow lead the Middle East to become democratic.

The Crusaders were deluded fanatics, and so are the war mongers in both political parties in America today. It was said under the Bush administration that better the war be waged in Iraq than in America. Except, there were further terrorist attacks in America. The bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013 and other attacks on American, British, French, Belgian, and German soil after the rise of the Islamic State.

The Iraq war was a humanitarian failure. From Iraq came Syria. From both wars came refugees who fled the horrors of war and genocide and flooded Europe. The Greek islands were flooded with refugees and migrants which led to the rise of the Neo Nazi Golden Dawn. Likewise, other extremist parties in Europe grew in strength from the events that emanated from the Iraq war.

The Bush-Cheney administration initially invited Russia to join in the Iraq invasion. The Russians wisely declined to participate which triggered the anger of the neoconservatives. Incidentally, the neoconservatives in 2016 began leaving the Republican Party for the Democratic Party. I will always remember being on the island of Rhodes reading an op-ed in the International New York Times by neocon Max Boot endorsing Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.

Bill Krystal and other neocons such as Robert Kagan supported Hillary for President in 2016. The war mongers today are to be found in the Democratic Party. The Republican Party of Donald Trump for all its flaws (and Trump is a deeply flawed individual) is not the party of Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush.

Donald Rumsfeld’s legacy will be debated and discussed by historians and academics for many years. Some of us who are opposed to his notorious legacy have made our choice to support the other Donald in order to prevent the rise of further war mongers. The recent fall of Elizabeth Cheney who shares her father’s demented foreign policy views can be credited to the Republicans who continue to support Donald Trump.