When I look at President Bush mulling over America’s fate in Iraq and demanding no less than victory, I can’t help but get extremely annoyed at the fact that neither he, nor any of his military geniuses, have learned anything from the past. In the history of this area, and particularly Iraq, there exists a very troubling, turbulent and volatile era lasting for hundreds of years sustained by never-ending tribal warfare. Due to this tumultuous history, European nations such as Britain and France found out through much pain and sacrifice, that the Arabs of the region were basically ungovernable. After countless re-drawings of maps, costly military marches across the desert, and scores of attempts at colonization, the mighty nation of Great Britain withdrew. Sound familiar? You won’t believe what some of the ‘great leaders’ of the time said…

As a field archaeologist working many, many years in the Middle East, T. E. Lawrence worked and lived with the Arabs. He wore their clothes, learned their culture first-hand, and also learned the language and local dialects. This deep and diverse knowledge of the area proved to be indispensable to Great Britain. In 1916, after enlisting in the military and working for the British Military Intelligence, he was sent into the desert to report on the Arab nationalist movements. Britain had interests in this area and was determined to exploit them.

At the time, Emir Faisal, a son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca, was conducting military operations against the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire who had ruled the area for centuries. Lawrence’s major contribution was convincing Arab leaders to co-ordinate their revolt to aid British interests. Many of you are probably familiar with T.E. Lawrence’s daring and reckless adventures in the Middle East which are portrayed in a movie entitled Lawrence of Arabia. I recommend that you see it because it is a spectacular cinematic event that portrays the struggles of a man entangled in a country’s violent aggression against occupiers.

Lawrence, after having lived, worked and lead various successful military campaigns in the desert alongside the Arabs, was against Britain’s imperialism toward Iraq. From an article in the winter, 2007, Wilson Quarterly, he was known to document and plead with Great Britain regarding their fate. He wrote,

“The Arabs…were blessedly ungovernable: The Arabs ideas of national union is episodic, combined resistance to an intruder. Constructive politics, an organized state…are not only beyond their capacity but anathema to their instincts.”

Great Britain, however, was not in the mood to give kingdoms to the Arabs. Their imperialistic maneuvers were at their height and no end was in sight. Therefore, in 1916, the Sykes-Picot Agreement was adopted. It basically divided Iraq and its neighboring areas to the west between the British and French. By this time, America learned of the existence of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and objected to what it called colonization. The thinking on the part of modern notions of nationality at the time embraced by the Covenant of the League of Nations, was “to encourage spontaneous democratic statehood in the area”. The ideas being put forth by Britain and France were that…

“These documents proclaim that if we supply an aggregate of human beings, more or less homogeneous in language and religion, with a little assistance and a good deal of advice, if we protect them from external aggression and discourage internal violence, they will speedily and spontaneously organize themselves into a democratic state on modern lines.”

Does this sound familiar? Britain had their most experienced, and knowledgable ‘expert’ who lived, worked and fought alongside the Arabs, telling them that what they were trying to do was impossible. But they ignored him and chose to pursue their fool hardy policy. Does this also sound familiar?

Even Woodrow Wilson’s confidante, Colonel Edward M House, wrote in his memoirs, “It is all bad, and I told Barfour so. They are making the Middle East a breeding ground for future wars”. How prophetic and so true. So, in 1920, four years later, the Arabs rose up against the British. Lawrence again spoke out in the London Times, by asking, “How long will we permit millions of pounds, thousands of imperial troops, and tens of thousands of Arabs to be sacrificied on behalf of a form of colonial administration which can benefit nobody but its administrators?”

What is even more ironic is the British reply, “Having set our hand to the task of regenerating Mesopotamia, we must be prepared to furnish men and money and to maintain continuity of control for years to come.” And finally, does this also sound familiar?

The British people did not agree. So the leadership bowed out and Britain gave control of Baghdad and Kurdistan to Faisal, King of Basra, a brother got Jordan and the father got Mecca and Medina.

What was interesting was that Britain, not only ignored the advice and counsel of Lawrence, but it conceded that the area was deeply divided by racial and religious cleavages. The Sunnis were landlords who helped govern the region and served as bureaucrats and high ranking army officers of the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, the Shia majority under hundreds of years of Sunni rule, were so little accustomed to holding high office and governing, that leaving the governing to them seemed futile. So, it was again feared that power would end up in the hands of a few. So Britain continued to pursue its imperialist march through the region thinking that they knew what was best knowing full well all these obvious realities.

It is amazing all the parallels to past history, especially in regards to this highly volatile and coveted area of the world. With so much rich history to learn from, why do we continue to make the same mistakes? Why do we continue to ignore history? When will we learn that looking back at events that occurred in the past, may lead us to new and more enlightened avenues for the future? I don’t think we will ever learn because we are not taught to think critically in this country. So, we are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past. I believe the President serves as an excellent of this. And the lessons we will have to learn again, will be steep and costly, just as it was to others in history.