The Athenaeum

"ON PERICLES" Richard Sale

"The notes about the speech of Pericles set me to thinking.

There is implicit in the Greek’s remarks that a democracy is a kind of association where decisions are made by the majority of the people. But Aristotle does not believe the predominance of the majority in making decisions is worth much unless it is subject to some serious conditions.. "A government that centers all its power in the votes of the people cannot be a democracy; for their decrees cannot be general in their extent." In other words, what is superior to the will of the majority, he says, is the supremacy of law. The Greek term was originally "Isonomia" which, over time became "equality before the law." Herodotus called "isonomia" the "most beautiful of words."
Aristotle says that a democracy, personal liberty, is the result of such laws, not their cause. Freedom, personal liberty, is dependent upon the soundness and comprehensiveness of laws, and in this Aristotle is clearly attacking the idea that simply because the majority wants a thing or believes it to be good, does not make that thing good or desirable. Clearly, democracy is the best way of achieving certain ends, but it provides only a means of achieving those ends. It is not the ends themselves. In other words, democracy is not an absolute value.
Democracy has to be judged by what it wants to achieve. If its development was intended to curb absolute power, the will of the majority cannot then become another form of absolute power itself for you have only substituted one species of subjugation for another. Even the majority has to enjoy its freedom within the restraint of common principles or laws.
The extension of democracy to all places and climes is an illusion Yet on the part of some, democracy is presented to us as if its extension is entirely desirable and should occur in as many cases as possible in any many areas as the idea is able to reach.
Democracy is a delicate plant and won’t take root in any and all soils. Even in our own democracy, it is subject to conditions: suffrage isn’t infinite --people have to be 21 to vote, criminals can’t vote, resident foreigners can’t, etc.
The current theory of democracy in America suffers from the fact that it has developed within a very homogeneous community which then applies it to instances that are defective and draws the wrong inferences from the failure.
Democracy is supposed to be the best means discovered for peaceful change, yet the ignorance of the public can pervert democracy. Hobhouse once wrote that the average man "has not the time to think nor will he take the trouble to do so if he has the time." It was a democratic election that brought Hitler to power. And there seems little doubt that, if democracy were allowed in many Muslim countries, their peoples would elect a thousand little bin Ladens.
With greetings to all,
Richard Sale"

St. George

St. George is the patron saint of the Palestinian Christians.  He is thought to have been a native of "Lydda" (Lod) where Ben Gurion airport is now located.  I don't think we have a "St George thread" but should have.  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George

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"Dear Col. Lang:

Last spring I researched St. George in the Mills College library, which dates back to the mid 19th century and keeps very old books in circulation. I found two sources re: St. George. The second, 19th century source, seems particularly germane to our St.

George thread, and is very important to me and the novel I'm working on, set in South Lebanon and infused with visions of St. George. Herewith my notes:

St. George

From Dictionary of Mythology Folklore and Symbols Gertrude Jobes Vol. 2 p. 1370 publ. 1962

http://library.mills.edu/search/?searchtype=t&searcharg=dictionary+of+mythology&searchscope=3&SORT=D&extended=1&SUBMIT=Search&searchlimits=&searchorigarg=dLiterature+and+folklore

"George. Martyred 303. One of the seven chammpions of Christendom. In Georgia, Russia, revered as a deity of good fortune. His worship is related to moon worship, and he occupies a position similar to that of Christ as mediator and intercessor. Adopted by Edward III, he became patron saint of England. In legend, he killed a dragon to save Cleodolinda, daughter of the King of Lydia, or Sabra, daughter of Ptolemy, in much the same manner that Perseus killed dragons to save maidens.

The legend is an allegory expressing the triumph of Christianity over evil. He is called the everlasting green one, inasmuch as his conflict with evil is eternal. Again and again he was slain, but he kept returning to life until he was mutilated, cut into small parts and burned, his ashes scattered in the wind, attributes of a fertility lord...By Arabs called Djirdjis.

S. Baring-Gould: Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, Boston, Roberts Brothers 1882. comparative mythology

http://library.mills.edu/search/abaring-gould/abaring+gould/1%2C8%2C15%2CE/frameset&FF=abaring+gould+s+sabine+1834+1924&2%2C5%2C

"he was a native of Lydda, but brought up in Cappadocia, he entered the Roman army and suffered a cruel death for Christ." "The turks pay great veneration to St. George."

Dean Stanley moreover noticed a Mussulman chapel on the sea-shore near Sarafend, the ancient Sarepta, dedicated to El Khouder, in which "there is no tomb inside, only hangings before a recess. This variation from the usual type of Mussulman sepulchres was, as we were told by peasants on the spot, because El Khouder is not yet dead, but flies round and round the world, and these chapels were built wherever he has appeared"

(p. 231).

Ibn Wahshiya al Kasdani, 900s, Chaldaean, Muslim, "hated the Arabs", translated Nabathaean writings rescued from "Moslem fanaticism." "Book of Nabathean Agriculture by Kuthami the Babylonian". Ibn Wahshiya links Tammuz to festival of St. George end of Nisan

(April)

–

says "what is related of the blessed George is the same as that told of Tammuz" i.e. Restored to life.... "Phoenician Adonis was identical with Tammuz.

St. Jerome in the Vulgate rendered the passage in Ezekiel (viii. 14)< "He brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was towards the north; an behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz," by ecce mulieres sedentes plangetnes Adonidem; and in his commentary on the passage says, "Whom we have interpreted Adonis, both the Hebrew and Syriac languages call Thamuz, and they call the month june by that name." He informs us also of a very immportant fact, that the solstice was the time of wailing for Tammuz.

George/Tammuz identified with sun/fire (torture by fire, dumped in vat of molten lead etc.)

Baring Gould says fight between St George and dragon took place at Berytus (Beirut). Compares to story of Perseus. Scene of conflict near Joppa, where in the days of St. Jerome the bones of the huge reptile were exhibited (p. 255)

"According to another version, the dragon guards the spring of water, and the country is languishing for want of water; St. George restores to the land the use of the spring by slaying the dragon." (264)

(end notes. All of the above is quote or paraphrase from referenced sources, not my original material).

If this is of interest, feel free to republish.

Copyright must have passed into public domain ages ago.

Regards,

Leila Abu-Saba

Regards,

Leila Abu-Saba

http://bedouina.typepad.com

Dove's Eye View - An Arab-American woman sees signs of hope"

"Collective Memory is the Toolshed." Christine Helms

"THE HISTORICAL MEMORY OF A NATION IS NOT MERELY A REPOSITORY.  OUR VISION OF THE PAST CHANNELS OUR VISION OF THE FUTURE BY CONSTRAINING OPTIONS, BUT ALSO IT PLAYS A PROACTIVE ROLE.  THIS MEMORY IS ACTUALLY A VERY IMPORTANT FACTOR IN STRUGGLE.... IF ONE CONTROLS PEOPLES' MEMORY, ONE CONTROLS THEIR DYNAMISM....  IT IS VITAL TO HAVE POSSESSION OF THIS MEMORY, TO CONTROL IT, TO ADMINISTER IT, TELL IT WHAT IT MUST CONTAIN.'  COLLECTIVE MEMORY IS THE TOOLSHED, TOMORROW'S IDEOLOGICAL ARSENAL, FROM WHICH POLITICAL CONCEPTS AND SYMBOLS ARE SELECTED, REINTERPRETED, AND MANIPULATED BOTH BY ESTABLISHED GOVERNMENTS AND OPPOSITION GROUPS.  IT MAY WAIT FOR DECADES, PATIENTLY DORMANT, ONLY TO BE REACTIVATED SUDDENLY AS AN EXPLOSIVE CONTAGIOUS FORCE." DR. CHRISTINE M. HELMS IN MCNAIR PAPER # 10 "ARABISM AND ISLAM: STATELESS NATIONS AND NATIONLESS STATES."  SEPTEMBER, 1990.

Dr. Helms is an old friend.  Years ago I read this quotation from her work and was as impressed with it then as I am now.  All too often we Americans seem to think that the past has little relevance except as a matter of antiquarian concern.  As I have written before it is only in this country that the statement "That's history" is dismissive.

A belief in the malleability of human consciousness and the irrelevance of the past underlay our ridiculous over confidence in Iraq.

Have we learned anything from the experience?  Do we now grasp the notion that collective memory will not be expunged by public relations campaigns or lying "information operations?"

Pat Lang

Two Cinematic Views of War in the Pacific - Farrell

Download letters_from_iwo_jima.doc

Download fires_on_the_plain.doc

Reviewed by Alan Farrell

Pericles' Reproach to Us All

"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace."   Thucydides

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/PERICLES.HTM

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Perhaps Thucydides gilds the lily, but his funeral oration was once held up to American youth as the example of what the inheritors of Athens should be.  One of my classics professors thought so.  We spent several days on this.

"The Peloponnesian War" continues to instruct and warn us.  pl

1943 US War Department Handbook on Iraq.

A friend has sent me this US War Department Handbook on Iraq from 1943.  At that time, one of the Lend Lease routes to the USSR ran through Iraq and Iran and a number of US military people were stationed in Iraq.  This is the period of the Hashemite monarchy.  pl

Download 1943_war_dept_iraq_handbook.pdf

Oil

There clearly is a lot of desire to discuss this. pl

Krak des Chevaliers

This castle is probably the most perfectly preserved medieval fortress in the world.  It was heavily re-built and restored by the French mandatory government of Syria.  I would like to have a conversation in this thread not only of this castle but also of other crusader architecture and towns, of modern (and traditional) scholarship with regard to the crusader states.  Let us have something in this thread other than the usual accepted wisdom of how cruel the crusaders were, how small were their numbers and how base was their enterprise.  In other words something other than the litany of:  race, gender, and class.  There is a lot of work going on in this field.  Go look for it.

Some possible bibliography:

Something basic

- Runciman's three volumes "A History of the Crusades"

- Zoe Oldenbourg's "The Crusades"

Something on life in the crusader states

- Anything by Joshua Prawer

- Anything by RC Small

Something new

-"Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem"  Ronnie Ellenbaum

-"The First Crusaders 1095-1131"  Jonathan Riley-Smith

pl

"Pirates of the Caribbean- Dead Man's Chest" Farrell

Download pirates_of_the_caribbean_dead_mans_chest.doc   Reviewed by Alan Farrell

Winograd Report on IDF Failure in Lebanon in 2006

It seems to me that I said much of this last year but it is good to know that the Israeli government agrees with me. pl

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Winograd Commission Not In Awe of RMA

CDI Science Fellow Haninah Levine has translated and summarized the findings of Israel’s Winograd Commission Interim Report that studied a selection of Israel’s failures in its recent conflict with the Hezbollah in Lebanon. The report goes into several issues, some of them indirectly, and it would seem to have ignored some other controversies. However, a few of the findings are very relevant to the defense debate – such as it is – in America. The report is bad news for the advocates of the so-called “revolution in military affairs” here. We provide a summary of some of Levine’s findings and a copy of his complete analysis of the Winograd Commission Interim Report.

Levine, an Israeli citizen and CDI science fellow, writes in his summary of the Winograd Commission Interim Report that the failures the Israel Defense Forces encountered “stemmed, according to the commission, from ‘excessive faith in the power of the Air Force and incorrect appraisal of the power and preparedness of the enemy, amounting to an unwillingness to examine the details.’” More precisely, the failure can be attributed to a new twist in the decades-old agenda of the advocates of air power. Levine’s analysis connects what some in this country call the “revolution in military affairs” to a “new doctrine [in Israel] which emerged as stating [according to the commission] that ‘success can be achieved by means of ‘effects’ and indirect ‘levers,’ in place of classic concepts of success….’” Later, Levine writes, “Faith in advanced air and artillery system as magical ‘game changing’ systems absolved the [Israeli] General Staff from the need to consider what capabilities … the enemy possessed, and led the IDF into a strategic trap….”

It is a trap, one might add, that America now finds itself enmeshed in Iraq and Afghanistan in large part for the same reasons.

Levine’s summary of the interim commission report also goes a step further: the inappropriate reliance by Israeli’s Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Halutz and others on their new doctrine was complemented – rather exacerbated – by a low state of readiness in the backbone of the Israel Defense Force, the reserve ground forces. Levine writes, “the annual training given to reserve combat units was slashed dramatically [before the war].” Moreover, he writes, “the military’s emergency supply depots witnessed a steady decline in equipment levels, such that by the outbreak of the war in July 2006 supplies of both ammunition and medical equipment were dangerously low. ‘Even more worrisome,’ according to the commission, ‘is the lack of awareness within both military and civilian echelons regarding the factual state of matters.’”

The commission stated specifically, “the quality of equipment in the depots sent a message about values to the reserve soldiers. And in fact, missing, obsolete or broken equipment told the reservist that there was no one making sure that he would be equipped in a manner … that would allow him to operate in an optimal way….”

Given the shortages in many categories of U.S. equipment before and during the American invasion and occupation of Iraq (such as tactical radios, small arms ammunition, first aid kits, machinegun repair parts, M4 carbines and much else – to say nothing of body armor) and the backlogs of unrepaired equipment lining up at American military depots, the Israeli commission’s findings have a particularly unpleasant ring all too close to home.

Levine sums up the witches brew of high tech fantasies and basic unpreparedness: “as the conflict unfolded, Halutz’s optimistic assessment of the military’s state of readiness merged with his false confidence in the abilities of its advanced weapon systems … to create a state in which the chief of staff’s concept of what his forces were capable of achieving was completely divorced both from reality and from what the information available to him suggested.” One could, of course, substitute the name Donald Rumsfeld for Halutz in this conclusion.

Because the Winograd Commission failed to address them, two major issues are not discussed. There is a potential, perhaps even direct, connection between Halutz’s preoccupation with Israel’s version of the “revolution in military affairs” and the low preparedness of the Israeli ground forces: to pay for the high cost of high tech wizardry, it seems very possible that military readiness was selected as the “bill payer.” Secondly, the Winograd Commission’s interim report apparently did not address one of the most controversial elements of the campaign in Lebanon: the apparent “collective punishment” of civilian targets in Lebanon by Israeli artillery and air systems.

In the United States, the “revolution in military affairs” is being recognized as an abject failure only dimly and only in some corners; the Winograd Commission would seem to indicate that in Israel the matter is being faced a little more directly. On the other hand, in both countries it is not clear when, even if, the body politic will confront the issue of the civilian deaths resulting from domestic military forces and the very likely huge and long lasting ramifications that “collateral damage” (an atrocious euphemism) will incur, and already has.

The entirety of Levine’s summary of the Winograd Commission Interim Report follows; it also addresses other issues; it is worth reading.