Lawrence, and Arabia

A few days ago, I read an article in this month's Smithsonian about T.E. Lawrence, a British military officer known most famously as Lawrence of Arabia.  Young Mr. Lawrence was born into an upper middle class British family in 1888.  His fascination with all things Arabic began at Oxford College when he decided to study the Crusader castles of Syria, not by reading about them, but by walking from one to another through the deserts of this foreign land.  It was this time that he spent up close and personal with the people of the deserts, that earned him the intimate knowledge of the area, knowledge that proved invaluable to the British army during WW1.  And, unfortunately, it was the closeness to the people of Arabia that led Lawrence to be denounced by his home country when he worked ceaselessly to represent the rights of the Arab people to live and govern their lands.


Here is a link to the article.


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-lawrence-arabia-180951857/     


Of course, Hollywood's version of Lawrence is all glory and honor and loyalty.  And it is certainly true that Lawrence was considered a hero in the war, was turned to for advice both militarily and politically, and was loved by the Arab people he helped free from the Ottoman Empire.  But while Lawrence truly believed in Arab autonomy, the British and French had already carved out the lands of value, the lands with oil, for themselves, leaving only the wastelands of Arabia for the people who lived and had died fighting with them against the Turks.  The Smithsonian article paints a very sad picture of Lawrence, both towards the end of the war when some of his raids were less than merciful in the treatment of the Turks, to his apparent suffering of post traumatic disorder from both the war itself and a particular incident of torture that he suffered at the hands of a Turkish war lord.  His influence gone, his reputation in the Arab world fading, Lawrence became a recluse, dying in 1935 at the young age of 46 in a fatal motorcycle accident.  Not the stuff of a blockbuster movie.


The Smithsonian article also discusses the modern day reputation of Lawrence where he is considered more of an accomplice to the Western nations take over of Arab lands, Arab natural resources, and Arab governance.  Sadly, it seems as if it is only in Hollywood through the everlasting life of celluloid that Lawrence is still revered.


Sadly, the mistakes made by Britain and France at the end of WW1, were repeated just recently by our own government in our war in Iraq, and even now in our perspective of the Arab spring, Arab autonomy, democracy, and religion in Arabia.  We continue to act as if our values are the only correct values.  As if our need for energy trumps the history, traditions, and freedoms of the people who happen to live on the land that harbors that energy.  


What is going on the Middle East is very complicated.  There are no easy answers when there is such a toxic mix of royalty, power, religious fanaticism, and the money to be made from oil.  For Lawrence, living with and understanding the people of that diverse area led him to conclusions about freedom that did not play well in the political capitals of Europe.  Today, despite the obvious evidence that war begets war, that killing the people of that region only results in an increase of their hatred for us, whether that hatred is focused via religion or politics, we continue to act as if there is a military solution to the unrest that has existed there, not only since WW1 when we drew artificial boundaries in the sand to create Iran, Iraq and Syria, but for the thousands of years before that when other empires crossed the deserts to claim the riches of those times.  


The true irony is that Lawrence's acts of war, disabling bridges, razing forts, was effective precisely because he understood the battlefield, understood how to disrupt supply lines.  It is the exact kind of war that every native people engage in, when being invaded by foreign forces.  It was used against the British in the War for Independence, against the Germans on the battlefields of France and England in WW2.  And against America in Vietnam, against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and then again against the United States in Afghanistan. 


History can be a good teacher, but no matter the intelligence of the lesson, only students willing to learn from her will gain wisdom.   Let's hope that the lessons ignored by men like Dick Cheney will not be lost on our current administration, and by the future leaders of our country.