ANST - EuroBoys Overseas

[j'lynn yeates]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

for your enjoyment, the following post is shared as it was received
from a close bro'(origional posted on a "family" elist), with
specific permission granted from the author, Sir Balthazar, a rather
infamous, ex-pat ansteorran ... 

'wolf



Dear Folk,

Today, June 14, back in 1191 Phillip II ordered a full out attack on
the Moslem held city of Acre. It failed. I mean we had French and
English and whomsoever they could scrape together just a waling and a
bashing on this fortress city. Death and destruction all around.
Salah
ad-Din's (better known to the West as Saladin)troops held. 

Now the battle actually had been going on since June 6th. Richard I,
the Lionheart, had arrived on the scene and Phil was kind of anxious
to
show him what French troops could do. Phil and Rick were best friends
and some say lovers. Still, they were competing kings of great
countries. Phil's dad was Louis VII whom Eleanor of Aquitaine had
divorced to marry Henry II (Rick's dad). Did Phil hate / envy Rick
just
a little because Ellie went over to Hank? Boy! in anycase, that was
some close kinship.

The name Acre in Hebrew is sort of "Akko" and in Ancient Greek
"Ptolemais." There's probably about 50,000 folk there now. It is
north
of Mt. Carmel in NW Israel. Acre is a seaport town which made it
crucial for the crusaders. The best way to get supplies was from the
sea. Avoiding those pesky Moslem raiding parties and the heat of the
desert was essential. Acre was first taken by the crusaders in 1104.

Salah ad-Din had been consolidating Moslem power since the 1170s when
he took Egypt and Syria. In 1183 he took the town of Aleppo which
served notice to the crusaders he was for real. On May 1, 1187 he
beat
the Hospitlers and Templars at Nazareth. Losing that holy ground must
have stung badly. 

The major battle of the 2nd Crusade took place on July 4, 1187 in a
stretch of desert and sand hills called the Horns of Hattin. The
Hospitlers and Templars were led into a dry and dangerous camp. The
crusaders went into a trap that was to crush the flower of chivalry
for
years. Templars getting beheaded, kings being ransomed. Ugly stuff. 

Anyway, the third crusade was started around 1189. Phil and Rick were
there. After over a month of siege, Acre fell to the crusaders. Salah
ad-Din decided that making nice was the crafty thing to do. In  1192
the crusaders and the great Moslem leader concluded a peace treaty,
The
Peace of Ramala. The crusaders got a strip of land along the coast.
The
Moslems pretty much got the rest. Phil went home. Rick went towards
home but got captured along the way (see Robinhood legends about
Prince
John). Salah ad-Din eventually died. Hey, we all do.

So what is the lesson here? Patience and broadsword win the city?
Things never work out the way you plan? Soldiers die so that kings
can
sip sherbert in the shade? Watch out for lack of drinkable water?

I like that last one. Watch out for lack of water. I am also a firm
believer of "don't go in nobody strange's 'hood and act Billy
Badass."
See, the Moslems knew the turf; those blue-eyed EuroBoys did not.
Reminds me about a story about Vietnam which will have to wait.

Peace, Love, and Fight Yer Own Damned Wars,
Ells

=====
"That proves you are unusual," returned the Scarecrow; "and I am
convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world
are the unusual ones. For the common folks are like the leaves of a
tree, and live and die unnoticed." -- L. Frank Baum in _The Land of
Oz_

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP Personal Privacy 6.5.3
Comment: public key for jyeates at realtime.net at certserver.pgp.com

iQA/AwUBOUhY0M50zdvN3Vp0EQJBJACg3UvgJ+4N5f2j/gv/2uKmWI/enHoAn0IH
sBablRGEFNymDhmR36n9fJrP
=Msez
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.