Normally when someone mentions "Crusaders", I think of the Vought F-8 used by the Navy and the Marine Corps.*

However, the term 'Crusader' apparently maintains a more ancient meaning to the people of the Middle East who consider themselves to be followers of the prophet Mohammed. They of course think of the Knights Templar and others like them, because the Crusades are the Big Example of the evil foreigner Western devils kicking the Islamic door in and laying the smack down. Of course, they kinda sorta got even by taking over much of Spain and so forth, but lay that aside.

Cold Fury has an letter posted in the Pakistan Christian Post by a chap who basically calls Osama bin Laden out for single combat. The man, who signs himself "Chevalier James R. Reese, Grand Prior of the United States", seems to come across as serious. If I were to evaluate this on the level of playground machismo, it does the job. Chevalier Reese goes way beyond the level of remarks made by Lieutenant General W.G. Boykin in framing the war in religious terms, but with far more uh, fervor, or something. He certainly considers himself to be in a line with the men who rode east with Richard the Lion-Hearted---notice the phrase "When we faced Saladin".

I was under the impression that, in the intervening eight hundred years or so, none of the major groups of knights who went on the Crusades had survived. I'm pretty sure that a couple of them ran afoul of various pseudo-Catholic monarchies and were gobbled up for their real estate holdings and their bank accounts. Needless to say, I'll be digging about to see what I can find out in regards to the modern day knights. I ran a few terms through Google and it seems that maybe this guy's a Mason or something. That's a kettle I won't be plunging into, because I'm not eager to muck about in the fetid swamps of conspiracists et al, but this guy seems vaguely interesting so I'll keep at it.

I'd pay good money to see this guy put a whipping on Osama, courtesy of Christendom. And yes, I'd accept the chivalric granting of mercy if requested, but I'd be more interested in seeing OBL hacked to bits.

As Drudge might say, this is a developing story and further information will be related in this space. * These were really nifty daylight fighters, developed as the last gasp of the gun-armed air superiority fighter. They had four 20mm Colt M39E cannons, and could also carry four AIM-9 Sidewinder family infra-red homing missiles. They were largely replaced by the McDonnell F-4 Phantom series in service.

** I don't have the link at the second, but the people at Little Green Footballs did some fact-checking on this guy, but the gist of their work I gathered was to merely muddle the waters. Link will be posted when I'm in a better position to do so.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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