Pentagon promotes words of wisdom by Lawrence of Arabia

The Daily Telegraph ^ | July 6, 2005 | Oliver Poole

[KeyWest]

"There are very few lessons that have not been learnt in history. The skill is to choose to rediscover them."

Great quote.

[patriciaruth]

I remember reading years ago that when Lawrence was approaching puberty he suffered a fall and the blow to his head shocked his pituitary gland so that he stopped growing and hence was short in stature.

I don't know what other health problems such a pituitary insufficency would have caused.

People may have the wrong take on the man, due to Hollywood and other implications from his writings. But he may have simply been a very bright man whose mental life was complicated by a medical conditon.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

One of the great un-read books of the 20th century. It was the basis for Lawrence of Arabia.

[durasell]

Yep. That's the one.

[de Buillion]

"In the end he was killed by a motorcycle crash. Are you certain about the insanity. Any support for the syphillis idea? "

em2vn- you sound slightly confused. You are mixing what MadIvan stated in the first post with my reply to him/her in #4. The only support I have for the syphillis question (MY question) is that back then, syphillis was a common cause of insanity as well as being incurable. The statement about insanity came in the original post by MadIvan. You need to aks him/her about that. Any particular reason for your "touchiness" on this subject?

[Dave Elias]

The first paragraphs of the Seven Pillars is alledgedly a dedication to his gay lover.

[patriciaruth]

first paragraphs of the Seven Pillars is alledgedly a dedication to his gay lover.

I did not see it that way when I read Seven Pillars of Wisdom several different times during different stages of my life. I saw it as an apologia for many of the Arab male friendships he observed during his exploits, especially the two youngsters who were devoted to each other, Doud and ? forgot the other one's name.

[marty60]

GEE I guess because he was homosexual his observations are worthless. Good Grief. T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

British Soldier and Author

1888 - 1935

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity:

but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

—T. E. Lawrence from "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas Edward (T.E.) Lawrence was born on August 16, 1888 at Tremadoc in North Wales. He was the second of five sons of Sir Thomas Chapman and Sarah Junner. Popularly known as Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence became famous for his exploits as British Military liaison to the Arab Revolt during the First World War.

Lawrence had been fascinated by archaeology since childhood. After graduating with honors from Oxford in 1910, he served as an assistant at a British Museum excavation in Iraq (then known as Mesopotamia). When war broke out with Germany in 1914, Lawrence spent a brief period in the Geographical Section of the General Staff in London, and was then posted to the Military Intelligence Department in Cairo. In 1916 the Arabs rebelled against the Turkish empire. Lawrence was sent to Mecca on a fact-finding mission, ultimately becoming the British liaison officer to the Arabs. His account of the revolt is chronicled in his classic books, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom, A Triumph" and "Revolt in the Desert."

After the war Lawrence served in the British Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, where he promoted the cause of Arab independence. Despite his efforts Syria, Palestine and Iraq were mandated to France and Britain. Lawrence returned to England exhausted and disappointed. By the end of 1920, British attempts to impose a colonial rule in Iraq had provoked an open rebellion. Winston Churchill was appointed by the British Colonial Office to find a solution, and persuaded Lawrence to join him as adviser. By the summer of 1922 Churchill, with considerable aid from Lawrence, had achieved a settlement of the situation.

In 1922 Lawrence resigned his position with the Colonial Office and enlisted in the RAF under an assumed name. After four months he was discovered by the press and discharged. With the help of a highly-placed friends he re-enlisted in the Tank Corps as 'Thomas Edward Shaw'. Between 1922 and early 1927 Lawrence revised "Seven Pillars" for publication, and edited an abridgement of the book called "Revolt in the Desert." Half way through this work he succeeded in transferring back to the RAF.

In March 1935 his twelve-year enlistment came to an end and he retired to "Clouds Hill " (the name of his cottage) in Dorset, England. Two months later he was thrown from his motorcycle while on a local errand. He suffered severe head injuries and died some days later without regaining consciousness.

by Robin Chew, 1996

[MinorityRepublican]

T.E. Lawrence: So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are.

[sonofatpatcher2]

To Dave Elias:

To S.A. 
I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands 
and wrote my will across the sky in stars 
To earn you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house, 
that your eyes might be shining for me 
When we came. 
Death seemed my servant on the road, till we were near 
and saw you waiting: 
When you smiled, and in sorrowful envy he outran me 
and took you apart: 
Into his quietness. 
Love, the way-weary, groped to your body, our brief wage 
ours for the moment 
Before earth's soft hand explored your shape, and the blind 
worms grew fat upon 
Your substance. 
Men prayed me that I set our work, the inviolate house, 
as a menory of you. 
But for fit monument I shattered it, unfinished: and now 
The little things creep out to patch themselves hovels 
in the marred shadow 
Of your gift.

To ALL: here are some websites:

T. E. Lawrence Studies http://www.telstudies.org/research/spw/sptexts.htm

Seven Pillars of Wisdom http://www.wesjones.com/lawrence1.htm

[marty60]

What a beautiful tribute to the death of a friend.

[patriciaruth]

He may have been homosexual, or he may have been a victim of the pituitary deficiency he suffered after an accidental blow to the head in his late childhood, the accident that stopped his growth, making him short in stature.

When I first read The Seven Pillars of Wisdom in the early 60's these things weren't talked about openly. However, my prudish father still recommended the book for me to read.

So, I have never come to a conclusion one way or another about the issue, but then I haven't been exposed to information that would have been more openly brought forward in the last anything goes decades.

[marty60]

I realize his writings are somewhere in the genius stratosphere, but if you really read them, they are quite beautiful.

I sometimes wonder if the people that pine for the "good " ole days of the FBI g-Men, are bothered by the fact that J Edger was homosexual.

The whole issue on BOTH sides is very unpleasent. I trust God will sort it all out.

[patriciaruth]

I wonder if the second manuscript was the best or the first one that was lost in the Paris train station was the best.

One thing about Heaven that I am counting on is that little questions like this will be answered.

That is the question I am more interested in having answered.

[Aquinasfan]

"There are very few lessons that have not been learnt in history. The skill is to choose to rediscover them."

True.

[Aquinasfan]

In the end he was killed by a motorcycle crash.

Wasn't that Duane Allman?

[Itzlzha]

"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."
"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.

SCREW 'EM!!!

I haven't CARED since 9/11...and 7/7 has just caused me to become even MORE enraged!

I don't care if you are Shi'a...Sunni...Sofa...loveseat...Whaabist....

You are ALL my enemy...your words and ACTIONS have confirmed it!

I do NOT show my enemies mercy...I MIGHT show the CONQUERED it...but NOT NOW!

Light the Fires, and Kick the Tires...time to check ALL Mosques...and their "Religion" be DAMNED!

Let us find ONE bullet...ONE pro-Islamazi piece of evidence...and it's time to pull them ALL down...preferrably around their Mullah' EARS!

NEVER AGAIN! NEVER!