I’m reading a book on the Crimean War, and it’s amazing how many of the issues being debated today about what it means to be Western were the same things people talked about 150 years ago.
You had Russia asserting itself in the Middle East, and Western countries opposing its expansion. The West worried about an expansionist Russia, the Russians offended and perplexed as to why the West would side against another Christian nation in favor of Muslims.
And there was tension in the West about funding Muslim groups against Russia. Fears that weapons supplied to the Turks would find their way to, yes, radical Islamic extremists.
And in the US? The US tended to support Russia and even sent volunteers there during the Crimean War, because Russia was viewed as a white Christian nation that we should support against the Muslims.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
