What If……..
Posted on August 6, 2008 by Michael Paskel |
What if…….. By Michael J. Paskel
September 11th was pivotal in the history of the United States as it was the date that radical Islamic fundamentalism gouged out a deep hole in New York, Washington and Shanksville; as well as the hearts of all Americans. It served notice on the world that Islam was again a power to be reckoned with. But few recall the importance of that date in the history of the conflict in which we are now engaged.
On September 11th, 1683, King John Sobieski’s army broke the siege of the Hapsburg imperial capitol by the Ottomans and set in motion the great unraveling of Islamic political and military power and influence over the European continent. For the next 318 years that retreat continued and the western powers eventually carved up the last vestiges of this once colossal empire.
Had the siege held and Vienna fallen to the Turks, our civilization may well have looked much different today than it does. History is filled with such wispy tendrils of happenstance, what ifs and what might have beens.
While it was inevitable that someone would discover the Americas in the late fifteenth century, what providence drove the Spanish ships, led by Columbus, to our shores and not to the bottom of the Atlantic? How different might our constitution have been, defined as it was by the collective experience and wisdom of the people who risked their lives and that of their families, to claw out a desperate toe- hold on this continent? Had those experiences been changed ever so slightly, might not our laws have been forged in a way making them and us different as well?
Had Booth been a few minutes late to retrieve his mail on April 14th, 1865, he might not have learned of Lincoln’s attendance at Fords Theater that evening, and there wouldn’t have been a President Andrew Johnson to impeach in 1868.
Had Mohamed Atta cared more for his own mortality than for his religious zealotry, he would not have rained down hell onto our streets and 2,948 of our brothers and sisters would have simply gone home from work that afternoon, each stepping back into an unperturbed life.
These musings are disquieting. The possibilities reach exponentially into the future with unknowable affect. But the law of scale says what is true for a large thing is true for a small one. The point is undeniable. Every life, seared by the conflict in Iraq, touches every other life with which we are all bound up. Each of us is affected by it in ways that make us different than we would have been had it never happened. Frank Cappra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” comes to mind.
Sure, Saddam might not have died as he did, but who is to say some degenerate underling, or power hungry Army officer wouldn’t have eventually introduced him to the business end of an AK-47?
And what if, instead of moldering away in some shallow grave in Tekret, he is sleeping in his own bed tonight? His reign of terror might not have ended, but then again the killing, now estimated at more than 300,000 has accelerated horribly since the U.S. invaded Iraq. The net number of deaths that has resulted must be higher than it would have been otherwise, and certainly, 4,100 of our countrymen would be celebrating the holidays, and birthdays and anniversaries with us instead of nourishing Mesopotamian soil with the blood of their sacrifices.
It pains me deeply to think of all the leaders, that will never lead—all the loves that will never blossom— all the children unnecessarily scarred— all the books that won’t be written and all of the pain that can never be alleviated, because of an unnecessary war against a non-existent threat. It is this lens that magnifies the tragedy that is our involvement in Iraq beyond measurable limits.
The war came home to us here in the Tennessee Valley recently with the news of the death of Lance Corporal Billy Koprince. His presence is missed in our community. I didn’t know him, but his tragic end effects me. All of us, are as diminished by his death, as we are unworthy of his sacrifice.
God be with his family.
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Thank you for such great insight into history. While I respectfully disagree about certain decisions our country has made, I do agree that the ever lasting question of “what if?” will always dominate the human race.
I’ve never heard of September 11th, 1683. Very interesting…
indeed!