It has been said that the Crusades were “the first unifying event in Europe.” The crusades “so stirred and united Europe that we may count them as the beginning of modern history,” wrote Halford Mackinder in his seminal 1904 article on “The Geographical Pivot of History.” He was not puzzled by the utter absurdity of aiming to unite Europe around Jerusalem. The popes convinced Europeans that the cradle of their civilization was a city at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, already coveted by two other civilizations (the Byzantine and the Islamic) and asked them to fight for it as if the salvation of Europe depended on it. There could not be a project more contrary to the interests of Europe.
Ultimately, the Crusades, with their inherent hypocrisy, harmed the West by corrupting its very soul, and harmed the rest of the world by making the West a dangerous, unrestrained predator.
And now we have the author of a book titled American Crusade as the warmonger in chief.