“When a soldier killed a man he earned the title of first-stage Bodhisattva (Buddha-to-be). The more he killed the more he went up the echelon towards sainthood … the insurgents were given an alcoholic drug that made them crazy to the extent that fathers and sons no longer recognized each other and didn’t think twice before killing each other; the only thing that mattered was killing.”

Buddhist Warfare forms an accurate history of violence in the name of religion. Its most shocking material is the studies of various sutras that justify killing with detailed reference to the Buddha’s central philosophical tenets. The book therefore presents a uniquely Buddhist “heart of darkness”.

British General Orde Wingate, the eccentric Zionist sympathizer, was apparently a homosexual…  

HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen was stationed in the Dutch East Indies when WW II began. After the destruction of the Allied Fleet by the Japanese during the Battle of the Java Sea in February 1942, Crijnssen’s captain was ordered to escape with his ship to Australia. Covered with tree branches, the minesweeper crossed the Japanese naval lines camouflaged as a tropical island.

Simo Häyhä is often revered as the deadliest sniper in history. Using nothing more than a Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle with stock iron sights, Häyhä is credited with felling 542 Soviet soldiers during the Finnish Winter War (with as many as 150 more kills by SMG). Nicknamed “The White Death”, Häyhä spent weeks in snow-covered forests, enduring sub-zero temperatures while sniping Russian officers, weapons crews and snipers. The Soviets placed a bounty on Häyhä’s head, utilizing counter-snipers and artillery fire in an attempt to kill him. Over the course of only three months, the 5’3” Häyhä (a farmer by trade) killed upwards of 800 of the Red Army soldiers deployed to Finland. Despite eventually being shot in the face by a Russian sharpshooter, Häyhä recovered and passed away in 2002 at the age of 96.

Ismail’s Bold Experiment: The Khedive Ismail, something of a visionary, used this money to modernize his nation, and thereby recapture some of the power and prestige of ancient times. Ismail dreamed of Egyptian independence from the empire of the Ottoman Turks, and envisioned a modern, Western Egypt, equal with the great powers of Europe. Ismail’s uncle Saïd had begun construction of the Suez Canal (partly funded by Egyptian cotton sales). Ismail finished the project, then threw a $10,000,000 party to impress the world. Ismail’s dreams seemed doomed from the start, since the extreme financial burdens that resulted from the canal project were leading to growing British and French influence in Egypt.

American technology and know-how offered a possible way out. Ismail needed commanders to organize and oversee the army, instructors to teach his soldiers, and engineers to build forts and map territories. Like the rest of the world, Ismail had watched from afar as the Civil War tore the United States apart. But he also realized that chaos brings opportunity. America was now filled with experienced practitioners of the most highly technological war the world had yet seen, most of whom now found themselves idle.

…ahem, apologies to Paul Anka.

James O’Meara of the always thought-provoking Where The Wild Boys Are blog (“Aryan Futurism, Heavy Metal Entheogenic Mysticism, and pitiless hordes of adolescent warriors in rainbow thongs”) weighs in on the gay Afghan article we recently linked to.

And while you’re at it, check out this interesting Wikipedia piece about the Sacred Band of Thebes, one of the Western world’s earliest elite military units that was composed of 150 pairs of homosexual lovers. Other Sacred Bands were also formed during the Greek War of Independence (wiped out), the Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869, and the various Balkan Wars. Greek special forces during WWII and after also used the “Sacred” designation.

Built according to the taste of its masters, Krak des Chevaliers is a typical example of Gothic architecture, uprooted from Western Europe and transferred to the middle east. Even today, it is one of the best preserved examples of European medieval military architecture.

A Kevlar-like armor might have helped Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.) conquer nearly the entirety of the known world in little more than two decades, according to new reconstructive archaeology research.

Presented at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Anaheim, Calif., the study suggests that Alexander and his soldiers protected themselves with linothorax, a type of body armor made by laminating together layers of linen.