"I'm To Appreciate The Situation"

May 1, 2006  

In December 1910 T. E. Lawrence gave up his postgraduate research at Magdalen College, Oxford and departed for Beirut where he took up the study of Arabic in nearby Jbail. Later, he went to work on the excavations at Carchemish, an ancient city of the Hittite Empire, in northern Syria. Prior to the outbreak of World War I, he traveled extensively throughout the region, frequently on foot, lived among the Arabs, immersing himself in their language and culture. Following the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 he enlisted in the British Army and was posted to Cairo. From that point on, if you’ve seen the movie Lawrence of Arabia or read Lawrence’s book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, you know the rest of the story.

As I arrived in Amman, Jordan, recently, on one of my many visits over the years, I thought about Lawrence and how the region has changed in the soon to be 100 years since he first arrived from Oxford. I also thought about how many things have remained the same.

Lawrence fought with Arab irregular forces against the Ottoman Empire in World War I. In the aftermath of the war, the League of Nations awarded the territory now comprising Israel, Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem to Britain as the Mandate for Palestine. Arab nationalism and the discovery of oil in the 1938, however, accelerated the transformation of the region for both those countries with oil, like Saudi Arabia, and those with little or none, like Jordan.

World War II, the outbreak of the Cold War, and the establishment of the State of Israel by UN mandate in 1948 profoundly redefined the politics of the region. The Suez crisis of 1956, several Arab-Israeli conflicts, the fall of the Shah of Iran, the Iran-Iraq war, the expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait by a U.S. led coalition, the Intifada in Gaza and the West Bank, and now Operation Enduring Freedom have profoundly redefined the politics of the region once again.

Certainly, the frequently violent events of the past 100 years have made the Middle East a much different place from what it was during Lawrence's time. Still, some things have not changed. The archeological treasures that lured Lawrence out of Britain have remained the same. The Pyramids, Petra, Crusader castles, and the remains of Roman, Persian, and Hittite cities all are as they have been for centuries, save the damage caused by the occasional earthquakes that threaten them. The desert, the lack of water, and the camel, of course, haven't changed either.

It’s understandable why so many in the West view the Middle East as a crucible of perpetual conflict and do not currently visit the region in the numbers its historical and archeological attractions warrant. If you have never visited or spent much time in the Middle East, particularly the more moderate Islamic countries, like Jordan, your knowledge can only be derived from what you read or see in the media, which by its very nature focuses principally on bad news.

Yes, even in places like Jordan hotel lobbies get blown up and American diplomats are murdered as they depart their homes for work in the morning. But things like this also happen in New York, Madrid, Bali, and many other places worth visiting.

I am always struck when I visit the region, how the people I see and meet with are so different from the stereotypical Muslim you see in the movies or on the news, and how everyday life is so normal. They love their countries, want the best for their families, and don't hate Americans as we are led to believe. Islamic fundamentalism may or may not be on the rise. Those who advocate it exploit political, social, and religious conditions in certain places. But it by no means has an open field. The voices of reason among Muslims are not few, even if they are not as vocal as we may like. It is a region of great contrasts to be sure. The conflict between the medieval and the modern is not only between Islamic fundamentalism and the West but between Muslims themselves.

People aside, a region whose history dates to the beginning of history has so much to offer. From the ruins of past civilizations to the modern cities that oil wealth has built to the holy sites of the world's three great religions, you can’t travel fifty miles without coming across something interesting or beautiful, even if it's just the desert.

One wonders, then, how Lawrence, if he were alive today, would react to all this. I suspect he would be just as fascinated and interested in the language, culture, and history of the region as he was then. I suspect he would spend just as much time exploring places like Carchemish as he did then. And I suspect that if he came across what I came across on a previous visit to Jordan, it would have brought a smile to his face as it did to mine.

In 2004 I traveled by Land Cruiser with a small group of U.S. and a Jordanian military officers across the desert to Wadi Rum, the magnificent and beautiful valley where Lawrence and his Arab irregulars joined with the forces of Arab tribal leader, Auda Abu Tayi, before attacking the city of Aqaba on the Gulf of Aqaba in July 1917. At mid-day, a few miles from a small Bedouin camp we had passed earlier, we spotted three people riding camels in the distance. It was a scene right out of the movie Lawrence of Arabia. Three people on camels in a vast ocean of sand against the rust covered bluffs beyond. As we approached, we could see that two were light-haired women led by an Arab guide. Surprised, we approached them to find out who they were and what they were doing in the middle of the desert.

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We learned that the women both were Americans. One, a 17-year-old, was studying Arabic in Syria. The other, her mother, was an employee of a telecommunications firm in Northern Virginia. Her daughter brought her to Jordan to experience the desert much as Lawrence himself had experienced it. They had spent the previous night at the Bedouin camp we had passed earlier. The spirit of T. E. Lawrence was alive and well in both these women. They were certainly aware of the terrorist threat to Americans, but not deterred by it. We talked with them for a while, I took their picture then, we went our separate ways.

As we drove away and they became ever-smaller objects in our rear view mirror, the encounter reminded me of something Lawrence reportedly once said. A newspaper reporter who later chronicled his exploits is said to have asked Lawrence what he was to do for those who had sent him into the desert. Lawrence replied, “I’m to appreciate the situation.” While his answer was a clever way of avoiding one question, it truthfully answered another. Whatever else he had come to do, he also had come to appreciate the situation. The two American women, like me, also had come to appreciate the situation. In that regard, Lawrence, the two women, and I had, at least, that much in common.

The Middle East, I suspect, long after its oil has dried up, will continue to be a magnet for foreigners who seek to understand its past, who find beauty in its desolation, and who believe in its people and its future. This will never change.