CONFUSION

Recently I was having an invigorating conversation with some dear friends and the topic of Iraq came up. I am in the military and this can be avery sensitive topic. I found this painting and it summed it up, the title CONFUSION-BAGHDAD. That is all we have for sure is confusion. I will never dismiss the good in restoring resources, educating children, instilling women's rights and removing the horrors of the old regime. Yet when will history allow us to learn from it. We have seen this before have we not?There was a little thing called World War I. The heavy laden Ottoman Empire was oppressing the Arabs from the North and the French and English from the South. "Lawrence of Arabia" ,the Movie, is a true story of T.E Lawrence an Englishmen who found himself rooted in the Arab lifestyle at the age of 22 after a four month walking tour of the Middle East. Lawrence was recruited as an intelligence Officer in the Great War. He would dedicate his life for the next ten years to the plight of the Arab. He would eventually capture a position of King of Iraq for his best friend. This journey was bloody and would take a great toll on Lawrence for what appeared to be for the good of man. Lawrence would later be quoted as follows. Need I say more!!

"Do not try to do too much with your own hands. 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. Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is." T.E Lawrence