A thousand years later, the Third Holy Roman Empire, now aligned with Shiite Islam, crusades against the Sunnis in the Levant

“Two romes have fallen. The third is standing. And there will be no fourth. Nobody will replace your Christian Tsardom! "

Letter composed by the Russian monk Philotheus in 1510 to their son the grand duke Vasilli III

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The Templar is truly a fearless knight and safe on all sides,

For his soul is protected by the armor of faith,

just as his body is protected by steel armor.

He is therefore doubly armed and does not need to fear either demons or men.

AD 1135 by Bernard de Clairvax

As the old saying goes, history may not repeat itself, but it sometimes rhymes…

A thousand years ago, faced with the decline of influence and power against a stronger Byzantine empire to the east and the expansion of Muslim armies to the south, the papacy in decline in this which is now Western Europe has launched an initiative to expand its influence and repel enemy forces; everything was devoted to religion and called the crusades.

The Christian armies fought mainly against the Shiite empires which had arrived in the Levant, temporarily conquering Jerusalem, and then fought the Sunni forces in Central Asia and in Southern Europe.

Today we see a version of history repeating itself. Unable to project power on a global scale, the Christian Orthodox Army of the Russian Federation, which is closely aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, launched an expeditionary force several years ago at Levant to maintain and expand Russia's access and influence in the region. They have largely succeeded in their quest. Russian President Vladimir Putin played a weak hand well.

Today, Christianity is aligned with Shiite Islamic forces in Iran and struggles against the remnants of the Sunni Ottoman Empire (which ultimately defeated Byzantium), President Erdogan and his Turkish military and the Sunni Islamist forces.

When the Byzantine Empire fell, Vladimir the Great of Ukraine had already Christianized the Slavic lands of Rus and established the Russian Orthodox Church, a spin-off of his Greek cousin, which was ultimately ruled by the Moscow tsars, who used his divine blessing as a means to maintain power. The Czars believe they were the third Holy Roman Empire after the fall of Constantinople to the Muslims, who are now called Istanbul. Putin followed in the Tsar's footsteps with this strategy.

Over the song…

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
It's been a long time, Constantinople
Now it's a Turkish delight on a moonlit night

Every girl in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not in Constantinople
So if you have an appointment in Constantinople
She will wait in Istanbul ..

Now, Russia and Turkey are shooting down jets, drones and mutually bombing soldiers. During most of the conflict, proxy forces are the first victims of violence, but now Turkish troops are dying in droves and the world is on the brink of conflict between Putin's modernized military and guardian Turkey from the southern flank of NATO.

The weak link in Putin's strategy is the impending collapse of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has been considerably weakened by direct pressure from the Trump administration, in contrast to the appeasement of Obama.

The question facing analysts around the world is this: Did President Donald Tump harm or do good to American interests by withdrawing American forces from Syria?

We believe that geopolitical players in Central Asia, the Middle East and Southern Europe have literally fought each other for millennia.

It will be interesting to see if Moscow has the stomach for a fight against Turkey, which considers a demilitarized zone along its border with Syria as an existential problem, in short, for which it is ready to fight. Moscow is also under a vigorous Israeli effort in the south to ensure the security of Jerusalem against rabid Shia militias and Iranian pressure.

However, the obvious fact is that … this is not America's fight.

Trump was right.