Editor, The Times:
When Mongol forces under Hulagu Khan took Baghdad in 1258, spreading death and destruction everywhere, there must have been the same consternation among the citizens of Mesopotamia as there is today.
Fortunately, the people rallied and the Egyptian Mamluks managed to inflict as series of defeats, starting with Homs in 1281 – the first major defeats that the Mongol had suffered until they invaded what is now Vietnam 1285 (a lesson to be learned here?).
Also, although it is seldom mentioned, the Christian crusaders were allied with the Mongols and also suffered defeat at the hands of the Mamluks.
Why the history lesson? Well history may not always repeat itself; however, history has the habit of rhyming with the present.
The main difference today in that area of the Middle East is the danger lies within Islam itself. A horrible fundamentalist sect bent on establishing a rigid caliphate is on a tear. Well armed and quite skilled at using their weapons, they have conquered a large area of Syria and northern Iraq, and now threaten Kurdistan.
And they are truly awful. Do they actually burn people alive? Note that one has to beware of atrocity stories. Example here – when the fictional 'Horrible Hun' of WWI morphed into the real thing in WWII nobody initially believed it. Only the revelation of places like Bergen-Belsen proved that the atrocity stories were true.
I've previously stated that the U.S. should not get involved in this conflict. I still believe that there should be no American 'boots on the ground.' After all, as Dexter Filkins pointed out in the New Yorker, it was George Bush's ship of fools with its quest for non-existent weapons of mass destruction that contributed to the current mess.
However, with the Kurds supplying the foot soldiers, the air strikes and humanitarian drops ordered by Barack Obama are, at the moment, the only way to go.
After all, the evil that is ISIS has to be defeated one way or the other. Before it's too late.
Dennis Peacock
Clearwater, B.C.