Lesson Still Not Learned

Submitted by Mike Ramirez (United States), Jan 18, 2010 at 07:47

Dr. Pipes, your article states in part: " (T.E.) Lawrence had given this advice: 'It is their war, and you are to help them, not win it for them,' a notion, Petraeus declared, as 'relevant in the 21^st century as it was in his own time in the Middle East during World War I.'"

Excuse me, Dr. Pipes, but we must not forget that wars are driven by and countered by varying ideologies. The prevailing situation that exists in the current Middle East conflict are indeed tribal and yet consist of political, social and theological ideologies; Sunni Islam vs Shi'a Islam. However, these two have been at odds since the seventh century. Let's not also forget that the fundamental ideologies of both Sunni and Shi'a call for the eventual demise (destruction) of Israel and the dominance over all Western-style Democratic civilizations. Whom have we chosen to help?

A hard lesson that U.S. military strategists failed in is seen in the Afghan war of the late 1970's when the United States "helped" the Afghan tribes resist Soviet military encroachment into Afghanistan. The resulting gratitude came back to haunt this country unto this day in the form of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, the Taliban, et al.

In my opinion, General Petraeus and all future United States and Western military commanders need to abide by the age-old strategy: "Know Your Enemy." I am sorry to say that T.E. Lawrence's military approach of "It's their war, and you are to help them, not win it for them" has put us in an awkward and dangerous position of assisting, empowering and emboldening a future enemy. In other words, we will help them now but we will fight them in the future when they turn against us. That's the lesson we still need to learn.

Mike Ramirez

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".