I was scrolling through the channels last night and settled on a documentary on the History Channel: “The First World War: Jihad”

It was about the British/ANZAC battles in the Mediterranean in WWI and it backtracked some of the ramp up situations.

It seems the Germans, with a “little” problem on their eastern border realized the Turks to the south, and Muslim in nature, also had a problem with the Russians. Solution to a really big nation? Gather overt allies, or….study the neighboring culture and fine a leverage point. They did. Guess what it was? “Jihad.” Heard of it?

To be brief, the show talked through the campaigns of the early days of WWI and also included some of the effect after the war, to include the problems the Brits had in the empire in the Middle East. It seems the jihad “reminder” placed by the Kaiser led to an emboldened Turkey and Muslim world, and it was on with the jihad even before WWII.

What a legacy. On the other hand, for some time, I thought this was a more recent phenomena, but it seems the Soviets got more than German rocket scientists at the end of WWII….

(it shows again 4/7-11-12-14. The link takes you to the schedule)