Lawrence, who wasn't actually "of Arabia"

We seemed to have stumped the panel with yesterday's mystery quote, but I'll wait a bit longer before revealing the answer, in case anybody wants to do some research or take a wild guess. Hint: there was a fairly obvious hint in yesterday's post.

Today's quote isn't a mystery; it's from T.E. Lawrence, better known as "Lawrence of Arabia." It's about a place that was then (1920) known as Mesopotamia; its capital city, Baghdad:

<<The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are to-day not far from a disaster.>>

I'm reading Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom for the second time now, rationing it to no more than a chapter a night, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the problems of the Middle East. But if you don't have time or inclination to read it, AND if you have cable or satellite access to Turner Classic Movies, you can watch the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia tomorrow (Saturday) on TV at 4 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time. If you miss it, look for it in your local video store. The movie weighs in at a hefty 222 minutes, so there's definitely an advantage to watching a video or DVD version.

Lawrence was a resourceful go-getter, a blue-eyed blond Brit who got so close to the tribespeople he referred to as "the Arabs" that he not only learned to ride a camel, he traded his military uniform for Arab garb. There was no Star Trek in those days, but if there had been, Lawrence would have been in clear violation of the Federation's Prime Directive, also known as Star Fleet General Order One, which prohibits Star Fleet personnel from interfering in the development of a less technologically advanced civilization. (Long before either Lawrence or Star Trek, Hippocrates said it in a slightly different and more broadly applicable way: "First, do no harm.") Lawrence was a close adviser to Feisal, who became king of Saudi Arabia, having adopted Lawrence's concept of "the Arabs" to unify the peoples of the Arabian peninsula to fight not only for themselves but, coincidentally, the British. And coincidentally, Feisal's descendants rule that land to this day. Lawrence came to regret getting so involved in other people's business, but he had to admit he enjoyed it and even had a natural talent for it, and in any case there was no going back. As you can see from this picture, Peter O'Toole looks a lot like the real Lawrence.

Though the BBC just reported that "many phones are still working" in Baghdad even after yesterday's bunker-busting bombing of the main telecommunications exchange, it seems less and less likely that we'll see any new posts from Salam Pax, citizen blogger in Baghdad, anytime soon.

Meanwhile, we've found another alleged Baghdad blog, this one called "Saddam's Cyber Palace".

Wild Art Week forges on