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Entry: A Providential War? Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_providential_war#7895 Post contents: I differ from many in our blog community in my belief that the empires who ruled most of the world in the 1800s were the lessers among many alternative evils. The British Empire (despised by so many of our writers and commenters) was one, and it did a better job of advancing and maintaining civilisation and decency in Africa and Asia than its "national-self-determining" successors have done. And the Turkish Empire was another, and its dissolution was another great loss for civilisation. FJ Sarto, your point is a subtle one which might be lost on many, but I perceive what you mean when you suggest that a Turkish invasion of Kurdistan might be guided by the Hand of Providence after all. Turkey should not be in the EU, or in NATO, for historical and perhaps even spiritual reasons (perhaps even including the reasoning of God, beyond our understanding.) But the Turks - after they were shown their boundaries in Europe in the 1680s - did a pretty fine job of governing the hornets' nest of the Middle East, and as the Turks are one of the most civilised of the Muslim nations, maybe they ought to reclaim their role as the imperial hegemonic power in the Middle East, like they did in the 1800s when Europe was at peace and Western civilisation/Christendom was in no peril at all. I'm saying this as a professed Christian who has some noble Muslim friends in some non-Western countries, and as one who, although not a Muslim, has a lot of respect for Islam - but I would prefer to see Islam remain, for the most part, within its traditional geographical borders, as it was when the Turks ran things in the Middle East. But then that would be the opposite of Wilsonianism, wouldn't it. So most of us here would be expected to agree - but then they might need to do some re-thinking about the comparative virtues of empires versus nationalities. Hmmm... Sent at: 2008 07 09