"An Army Travels on its Stomach"

I think Napoleon said that. I also think that it was the Romans who were the first to have a paid professional army, but it might have been the Greeks. Before that, and after Rome went down, military operations were largely funded by looting and pillaging. The Russians were reputed to be still doing it as late as World War II although, according to this lady I used to know who claimed to have lived through it, "The Rape of Berlin" was not perpetrated by actual Russians, it was their auxiliary troops from Mongolia. They had not been paid for awhile and, when they stormed into Berlin, they figured it was payday. It was considered an atrocity at the time but, in the Middle Ages, it was business as usual. It was a long walk from France to Israel, and a soldier gots to eat. I seem to remember reading that the Crusaders who trashed Constantinople were upset because they had been promised a boat ride for the last part of the way, and were under the impression that it was supposed to be free. I'm not sure whose fault that was but, when they found out they had to pay for their passage, they decided to raise the money in the manner to which they had been accustomed. Today's soldiers are much more sophisticated. By the time they take a city, there is usually nothing left to loot and pillage.

I still don't see the connection between the Crusades and our current operations in the Middle East. Although the Crusaders often became distracted along the way, at least they started out with a central purpose. They knew where they were going and what they were supposed to do when they got there. They didn't always follow their plan, but at least they had a plan.

I also don't see the connection between Martin Luther and those bikini girls. Luther renounced celibacy after he split from the Catholic Church, and even married a former nun, but I can't picture him frolicking around in field or forest with a bunch of scantily clad lovelies. Wagner might do something like that, but I don't know about Cecil B. Demille. I don't know what any of that has to do with the horny helmets that the Vikings either did or did not wear, although they certainly did their share of looting and pillaging.