The Pachyderm Post

It is a testament to our post-modern, unreal world that one of the heroes of the era that gave birth to the very idea of Iraq was himself an agglomeration of truth and lies, masquerading as what he was not, behaving – in ways heroic and not – bizarrely far outside the boundaries of normal and healthy behavior.

Even his name contributes to the tapestry of mis-representation that was and is today the fibrillating heart of his story of uncommon valor and degraded dissipation.

“Thomas Edward Lawrence” did not not actually ever legally exist. His name would have been “T. E. Shaw”, if his father had properly divorced the wife whom he left, and if he had properly married the governess with whom he escaped, and who bore his five children, of whom T. E. was the second.

T.E., known to moviegoers as “Lawrence of Arabia”, was a brilliant, exceedingly odd, troubled man, who just happened to be the right man for the right times in the right place.

And of this conjunction was born the legend of the western military man who was able to immerse himself – often in Arab dress – in the Middle Eastern cultures that were the source of the Arab uprising and the roots of the modern Middle East.

Much of Lawrence’s “immersion” was fantasy, spun from his and others’ fertile imaginations.

But a great deal of it was apparently true, and much was recorded in his quite amazing book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

It is important to remember that Lawrence was a participant in an insurgency – of Arabs against the Ottoman Empire – rather than a player in the suppression of one.

But the lessons of his experiences powerfully apply – if inversely – to the situation that the Bush Administration faces in Iraq.

Which is precisely why we have become aware of a kind of latter-day Lawrence, this time of Iraq.

His real name name is David Petraeus, and he was recently promoted to Army four-star general and installed as Commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

He is the modern epitome of the scholar-warrior, with a Princeton PhD. (in International Relations), a former post as Commander of the 101st Airborne, and two combat tours in Iraq, as well as one in Bosnia.

And he is expected to perform the kind of miracle that made Lawrence legendary.

Or, more accurately, he is expected to perform the scope of Lawrence’s miracle. The kind of miracle Petraeus has been asked to perform is incredibly – almost comically – more complex and difficult.

Just trying to describe it requires a dose of extra strength Exedrine:

He has been asked to lead an insurgency of the incompetent and sectarian militia-infiltrated Iraqi Army against – effectively – their own people, who are engaged in a vicious and intensifying civil war (1000 killed last month). He must simultaneously suppress a motley but deadly collection of foreign fighters and Jihadists, as he works to protect the mostly garrisoned U.S. force, not to mentioned those who will be living in police stations and other locations in various kill zones in Baghdad and Anbar Province.

Oh, and did I mention that he’s got about a year to do all this?

And do we need reminding that the U.S. is not a colonial power, as Britain was, and that the American population is generally sick of the war?

Every Iraqi knows these things, and therefore knows that U.S. forces will leave, and as soon as they possibly can.

Every Iraqi also therefore wonders what their world will be like when Petraeus and the rest of the Americans motor down to Kuwait, on their way back home.

And every Iraqi particularly wonders this as he or she talks amiably with an American soldier who is helmeted, flak-jacketed and armed, as well they should be.

“Winning hearts and minds” under these circumstances is as cruel an ironic joke as it became in another failed conflict: Vietnam.

The Pachyderm Problem here?

That we have already mostly lost, and that – having done so – we nevertheless “own” the present and looming disaster that the Bush Administration has created.

Which is why no Hollywood films will be made of David Patraeus’ glorious exploits in Iraq.

Which is a shame for him, for the Bush Administration, for the U.S., and for Iraq.

vb