War

The ground that was once the place of many crucifixions is once again being covered in blood. In Jerusalem, the year is 637AD, and the world is about to witness the beginning of its own corruption. Jerusalem is the most holy of all cities in the world; it is where the Christians believe Jesus was crucified then buried and the place where Muslims believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven in company of the angel Gabriel (Wilkins 97). This place of sanctity, important to all men who believe in a higher power, is the only place on Earth that will never hold peace. The city is being surrounded by a massive army of Arab descendants, an army of the Islam religion ready gain the city unofficially under Christian control. After a year of holding out, Sophronius, the Christian bishop of Jerusalem, is forced to surrender his city. The leader of the invading force, Caliph Umar, who held the title "Commander of the Faithful" is not there to take the city to destroy Christianity but to save the city from total disregard of its holiness with Islam. This battle of just one year is the very beginning of what will soon be a 30-year war named the Crusades; however, in truth the Crusades will never truly end. "Glory be to Islam who took the city of Jerusalem," or so they thought. The first Crusade began in 1076 as the Muslim Turks invaded the city and took over. The Turks shunned Christian pilgrims who visited the holy land, making a holy war between Christians and Muslims. From all over Europe great nobles, clergy, and peasants began preparing for the trip to fight for Jerusalem. Over the next 30 years, Christians and Muslims made a ping pong game out of Jerusalem. The whole Eastern Hemisphere was now involved in the long, overdrawn Crusades. It had long passed the point of being a political crusade to being the People's Crusades (Child 16-44). War is the one thing that people try to prevent; however, every generation since the written time of man, people have found themselves fighting for something they believe in.

War is a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between two or more political units; it is usually fought by a militia but can and has been fought by civilians ("War"). Sometimes a war can turn into total war; this involves everybody and everything; a war in which countries or nations use all of their resources to destroy another organized country's or nation's ability to engage in war. Total war has been used for centuries, but it was in the middle to late nineteenth century that total war had been recognized as a separate category of warfare. Total war is mostly different from regular war by the simple kill as many men as possible strategy in war to the grand warfare on all fronts strategy in total war. The main identifiable consequence of total war in the modern era is the inclusion of civilians as targets in destroying a country's ability to engage in war; the first theory was that if enough civilians were killed, factories could not function and the second theory was that if civilians were killed, the country would be so demoralized that it would have no ability to wage further war. Propaganda such half truths the governments give to the people has became a required component of total war in order to boost production and maintain morale of the country. "During the Punic Wars, Rome and Carthage fought with navies and armies across several theatres. In the end, Rome destroyed the city-state of Carthage, and destroying the empire's ability to wage war by enslaving or committing genocide on the populace. William Tecumseh Sherman's 'March to the Sea' during the USA's Civil War and his campaigns against Native Americans both destroyed the resources required for the South to make war. He is considered one of the first military commanders to use total war as a military tactic." World War I and World War II are examples of total war because almost all of Europe mobilized to conduct war; men were taken out of the factories to fight on the front and women were put in the factories to supply the nation (Total War). On March 19, 2003 the next generation since World War II is in it's time of total war in the Middle East Iraqi region. The United States is using all the man power they have into destroying anything and everything to keep the Taliban, the Iraqi supporters, from fighting, this includes civilians. During total war only one thing is important, the war. The outcome of the war affects the lives of those people involved in the fighting, so the structure of the society must be altered to assure winning. War is the single most enduring trait of humankind. Never in recorded history has there ever been total peace throughout the world. Many things can contribute to the cause of war, and there are many ways of fighting one.

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