Here is an interesting tidbit...

http://www.spainherald.com/2414.html

Discuss.

And so, the long term agenda of the Muslim hardliners is starting to be revealed.

Will the Crusades begin in our lifetime, or that of our children and their children?

Isnt it great that the people in charge have a really bad habit of trying to right what they believe went wrong over 500 years ago. The whole Yugoslavia thing started with a speech by Milosevic bitching about how the Serbs got trounced by the Muslim Turks 500 years ago.

I cannot for the life of me understand what drives people to listen to and act on things like that. Its like its the great curse of humankind. :(

I cannot for the life of me understand what drives people to listen to and act on things like that. Its like its the great curse of humankind.
European nationalism is a lot older than American nationalism, so perhaps grudges run that deeply (I don't understand it either). Or, more likely, it's a useful political tool for galvanizing support against political enemies.

People will take the most specious justifications for doing what is economically beneficial to them (even in the ridiculously short term). It's not like we haven't had modern examples of that in the US...

'European nationalism is a lot older than American nationalism, so perhaps grudges run that deeply (I don't understand it either).'

- Although I would agree about the nationalism bit, I mean you have the most diverse and conflicting cultures, peoples and races stuffed in to the smallest continent around, who have at one point or another pissed off their neighbours.
Look at us and the French. Fought almost continuously since 1066. The French have trounced the Germans, the Germans the French, everyone's trounced the Italians, the Turks have a sour muslim legacy of trouncing the Balkans for a good 400 years, we've trounced the turks, along with the Russians, the Russians have been invaded by everyone, as well as almost everyone being invaded by the Russians. The Austrians have married everyone and consequently fought them all at one point. The Spanish plagued us with, well, the plague, the inquisition, and a few Armadas, we've trounced the Middle East, the North Africans spent a good 800 years of piratical adventures, the Poles have been partitioned more than a birthday cake, and the Scandinavians plundered and settled almost everywhere before most countries became nation-states.
England alone has been Celtic, Germanic, Danish, French, and finally Germanic. It's been stuffed with Pagans, catholics, protestants, reformists, jews, africans/indians and now muslims.
It was only 60 years ago that everyone was tearing everyone apart in the climax of 1,000 years of differences.
You won't find an Irishman around who doesn't hate the British, or the British ready to laugh at Irish stupidity. They may not understand it, or even find it funny themselves, but it runs deep, 'cause history is not always about the past.

So yea, the Orthodox Serbs might still be pissed off with the Turkic muslims, the Jews still might feel uncomfortable in Spain, the Irish still might be chaffing besides the British, the Germans still might feel isolated in Alsace-Lorraine, and the Dutch may be finding it hard to live with the muslims.
It's not one big fucking happy family over here. But we do try to get along.

Anyway, as I was saying, although I agree, it's hardly an acceptable excuse.