Isis rampage: history says we must protect Europe’s borders

If Isis, from a standing start, can threaten Baghdad in a few days, then nothing is safe

Crispin Black

In 628 AD the Byzantine Emperor Herakleios advanced into Persia with his army, overthrowing the Shah of Shahs, sacking his palace and recovering the True Cross that the Persians (then Zoroastrians) had stolen from Jerusalem in a violent ant-Christian rampage a few years before. The Persians, long-time bitter rivals of the Byzantines, were defeated once and for all.

Arriving back in Constantinople in the spring of 630, Herakleios was met by the entire population, who came out to greet him “dancing with joy”. He didn’t actually use the precise words “mission accomplished” but that was the gist of it. Not only was the threat against Constantinople lifted, but the Christian Holy Places were now back in Christian hands.

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is a former Welsh Guards lieutenant colonel and intelligence analyst for the British government's Joint Intelligence Committee. His book, 7-7: What Went Wrong, was one of the first to be published after the London bombings in July 2005.