Regards, Ivan
Posted on 07/05/2005 10:29:37 PM PDT by MadIvan
The US military has turned to the wisdom of Lawrence of Arabia for guidance on how to win the war in Iraq and understand the mindset of its insurgents.
In the latest list of books recommended to commanders, T E Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, his first-person account of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks between 1917 and 1919, is number two out of 100.
Extracts from the memoir and his essays have also been e-mailed directly to senior officers in the field.
So highly does the Pentagon consider the relevance of his insights that it has officially adopted one lesson he preached on Middle Eastern warfare as a recipe for success in Iraq.
"Do not try to do too much with your own hands," it runs. "Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them."
The words, which in today's context are interpreted as evidence of the need to build up independent Iraqi security forces and a functioning national government, are regularly repeated by senior officers.
They also appear on the front of strategic briefing documents given to military personnel and visiting dignitaries.
"Lawrence is a man who spent a lot of time with Arabs and understood them and their culture," said Colonel Stephen W Davis, head of Regimental Combat Team 2, responsible for controlling the troubled western Anbar province.
"There are very few lessons that have not been learnt in history. The skill is to choose to rediscover them."
By his desk he keeps a copy of Lawrence's pamphlet The Evolution of a Revolt, which first appeared in Britain's Army Quarterly and Defence Journal in October 1920.
Although there are vast differences in time and circumstance between Britain's imperial past and America's Iraqi present Lawrence's writings, US officers say, show a unique appreciation of insurgent tactics gleaned while he was assigned as a liaison officer to the Arab Revolt.
Then major confrontations were avoided as the rebels concentrated on guerrilla tactics, mostly blowing up railway tracks and cutting supply lines.
In Iraq today American convoys come under regular attack, sometimes by rocket-propelled grenades but mostly by roadside bombs.
"You can see the parallels," said Lt Col Tim Mundy, the commander of marines based on the Syrian border.
Lawrence also detailed the frustration of facing an enemy who hits briefly then hides, saying repeatedly that time was on the side of the rebels. In the Middle East, he concluded, "war upon rebellion was messy and slow, like eating soup with a knife".
Lt Col John Nagl, who in 2003 was operations officer for a tank battalion based near Fallujah, took the phrase "eating soup with a knife" as the subtitle of a dissertation on counter-insurgency produced last year.
The thesis, which emphasised Lawrence's lesson on not being dependent on fixed fortified posts, was picked up by the Pentagon and distributed to every general in the army.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
---T E Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom---
Number One: Never let a Turk get behind you.
What was the cause of his insanity, Syphillis?
Hanging out in the desert too long, more likely.
Regards, Ivan
Hanging out getting beaten with a cane by his Batman for sexual gratification or being parted from his beloved Brough Superior might also be possible reasons.
"---T E Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom---
Number One: Never let a Turk get behind you."
In other words he was a top.
Eccentric maybe, but insane? He seems to be the only Westerner ever to get a fair shake from the nosepickers of the house of Saud.
He seemed to know what he was talking about. He was able to convince a large group of Bedouin to fight the Turks instead of fighting against each other.
Knowing when he was and when he wasn't is the trick.
Lawrence regarded them as noble savages. alas; he was only half right..
Never read Lawrence's stuff, what was his seven pillars of wisdom? Anybody know?
One of the great un-read books of the 20th century. It was the basis for Lawrence of Arabia. It was also self-published.
Better to start off with The Mint, which is not only substantially shorter, but far more entertaining.
One of the great un-read books of the 20th century. It was the basis for Lawrence of Arabia. It was also self-published.
Undoubtedly you are right, I, for one, haven't read it. But what were his seven pillars of wisdom?
bible quote from proverbs...
Insane or not, he did quite an analysis of the essentials of successful guerrilla warfare.
Army magazine (AUSA) this month has a nice article discussing this and modern extrapolations from his seminal works.
I believe the Seven Pillars of Wisdom refers to the laws of Islam for believers, not the essentials of successful guerrilla warfare that he later distilled in writings and letters from this autobiographic book that he titled that which is about his military work in the Middle East during WWI.
If you ever do read Seven Pillar of Wisdom, be sure to have an unabridged dictionary on hand.
My father gave me his hardback copy to read when I was a teenager, and I needed a dictionary to get passed the first page.
Dad told me that Lawrence wrote the book twice. The original manuscript was accidentally left in a Paris train station, and he had to rewrite the whole thing over.
The first publication was private, and Lawrence gave copies only to his friends.
Liddell Hart's book Strategy used a lot of insight that Lawrence conveyed to him in private correspondence.
A Prince of Our Disorder had some Seven Pillars content.
[Snip]
When this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography first appeared in 1976, it rescued T. E. Lawrence from the mythologizing that had seemed to be his fate. In it, Harvard professor of psychiatry Dr. John Mack humanely and objectively explores the relationship between Lawrence's inner life and his historically significant actions. Extensive interviews, far-flung correspondence, access to War Office dispatches and unpublished letters provide the basis for Mack's sensitive investigation of the psychiatric dimensions of Lawrence's personality. In addition, Mack examines the pertinent history, politics, and sociology of the time in order to weigh the real forces with which Lawrence contended and which impinged upon him.
In the end he was killed by a motorcycle crash. Are you certain about the insanity. Any support for the syphillis idea?
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