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You will find something far greater in the woods than you will find in books.
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Happy anniversary, Mister Rumsfeld!
I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on November 14, 2002, speaking on National Public Radio and Infinity Radio, USA.
Source: BBC
The Iraq war had been going for five months by August 20, 2003 as land troops from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland had invaded Iraq on
March 20. That
must make today some kind of anniversary! You win the 'Cakewalk'
Anniversary Cake!
Jim Lehrer:
Rightly or wrongly, Mr. Secretary, I went back and checked the record today, the impression that was given in public statements and all that sort of thing was that when this war ended, this war was going to end, that when Saddam Hussein and his regime, you know, fell, then the rest of it was going to be kind of a mop-up. And I'm just –
Donald Rumsfeld:
Not by me.
Amnesiac Donald Rumsfeld, September 10, 2003 Source: PBS News Hour
More good Iraq war quotes Myths of the War on Terrorism and Iraq
August 20
is the 232nd
day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (233rd in
leap years), with 133 days
remaining.
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Feast
day of St Bernard of Clairvaux
(Autumnal dandelion, Apargia autumnalis, is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
The Abbot of Clairvaux,
nicknamed the 'mellifluous doctor' and 'honeytongued teacher', was
renowned for his wisdom and abilities. He is remembered for helping the Cistercian Order to
grow ... and also for some most unfortunate milestones in medieval European
and Middle Eastern history. Indeed, his life
would seem to say much to us today in the light of events in the Middle
East.
Bernard was born at Fontaines-les-Dijon, Burgundy, France, in 1090 or 1091, according to your
choice of dubious sources. He had a great leadership ability, and gathered
around himself 30 companions, including his brother monks in the
Cistercian monastery of Citeaux.
Urged invasion of Palestine
One of the most significant men of the middle ages, Bernard might be looked upon favourably today by Jews, for he opposed their persecution, but certainly not by Muslims, for he assisted the military efforts by which Christian Europeans invaded and oppressed Muslims in and around Palestine for centuries – the Crusades. (The Crusades are still described, in the opening sentence of the online Catholic Encyclopedia's entry on the subject, as "expeditions undertaken, in fulfilment of a solemn vow, to deliver the Holy Places from Mohammedan tyranny".)
On
December
24, 1144, the capture
of the strong frontier fortress of Edessa by Zengi of Mosul – yes,
the same Mosul in northern Iraq
that was the scene of the Mosul Massacre by American troops on April 15, 2003 (qv) – had inflicted a serious blow on Christian power in the Middle
East, where, in in 1099,
European imperialists of the First
Crusade had established the Kingdom of
Jerusalem in Palestine.
In
1145, Pope Eugenius III commissioned Bernard
to preach in favour of the Second
Crusade. Although he was
not young, Bernard preached through France and Germany, raising so many
volunteers that in some districts, only one man was left for seven women;
he also persuaded numerous potentates to
commit state treasuries to that debacle. Mothers hid their sons, and wives their husbands, in case they would follow him.
The results of that Crusade
left Bernard humiliated, and he tried to disassociate himself from the
fiasco of the Second Crusade altogether. More successfully (for Bernard,
not for the people of the Middle East), he promoted the new order of the
shadowy Knights Templar, the rules of which he is said
to have drawn up.
Bernard Vs Peter Abelard; Faith Vs Reason
On June 3, 1140 (some sources say 1141), Bernard was largely responsible for the condemnation, on charges of heresy, of Peter Abelard (1079 - 1142), philosophical scholar and famed medieval lover of Heloise (whose uncle Fulbert had castrated Peter).
Abelard (Historia
Calamitatum – The Story of My Misfortunes) describes Bernard as
a mischievous, vindictive man:
"My former rivals, seeing that they themselves were now
powerless to do me hurt, stirred up against me certain new apostles in
whom the world put great faith. One of these (Norbert of Prémontré) took
pride in his position as canon of a regular order; the other (Bernard of
Clairvaux) made it his boast that he bad revived the true monastic life.
These two ran hither and yon preaching and shamelessly slandering me in
every way they could, so that in time they succeeded in drawing down on
my head the scorn of many among those having authority, among both the
clergy and the laity. They spread abroad such sinister reports of my
faith as well as of my life that they turned even my best friends
against me, and those who still retained something of their former
regard for me were fain to disguise it in every possible way by reason
of their fear of these two men."
Abelard, who among other things had written that "By
doubting, we come to inquire and by inquiry we arrive at truth", thus incensing the churchman,
tried to appeal to Rome, but Bernard craftily beat him to the Pope and the
philosopher's fortunes were shattered. Bernard's clash with Abelard
may be seen as a fight between faith and rationalism, and in this case
faith was the victor, in a sequence that might have hastened the
bookman's death.
" … Abelard, formally
arraigned upon a number of heretical charges, was prepared to plead his
cause. When, however, Bernard had opened the case, suddenly Abelard
appealed to Rome. Bernard, who had power, notwithstanding, to get a
condemnation passed at the council, did not rest a moment till a second
condemnation was procured at Rome in the following year. Meanwhile, on his
way there to urge his plea in person, Abelard collapsed at the abbey of Cluny, and
there he lingered only a few months before the approach of death. Removed
by friends, for the relief of his sufferings, to the priory of St Marcel,
near Chalon-sur-Saone, he died. First buried at St
Marcel, his remains were soon carried off secretly to the Paraclete, and
given over to the loving care of Heloise, who in time came herself to rest
beside them (1164). The bones of the pair were moved more than once
afterwards, but they were miraculously preserved even through the
vicissitudes of the French Revolution, and now lie in the
well-known tomb in the cemetery of Pere
Lachaise at Paris." Source
Bernard practised self-mortification
and was severe with his appetites; he only ate to save himself from
fainting; to escape the worldly talk of visitors, he even filled his ears
with flax; he selected for himself the most menial work in the monastery.
He said that he learned most of religion from Nature.
He opposed the massacre of European Jews, saying that
conversion was far preferable, and in this he was far ahead of his time.
He cured the blind, lame, and did many other miracles. In 1312, on the feast of St
Bernard, wonderful oil miraculously issued from St John of Beverley's
sepulchre, and this oil was a cure for many diseases. Or, so it is said.
Bernard died at Clairvaux
on August
21, 1153.
His patronage includes beekeepers, bees, candlemakers, chandlers, Queens College Cambridge
and wax refiners.
More on Knights Templar George Bush crusade More And more
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