What would Lawrence have done?

Two names I know but had forgotten about came to my notice today, thanks to a tip from Agent 17. They are T.E. Lawrence -- "Lawrence of Arabia" -- and his biographer, Michael Korda.

I read a couple of Korda's books when I was studying and teaching negotiating skills and approaches to getting and using power. In Hero: the Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, Mr. Korda has analysed the techniques used by Lawrence as he led the Arab insurgency against the Turkish Empire in World War I. The methods pioneered by Lawrence -- including IEDs -- could, he suggests, be used today against Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the warlords of Afghanistan.

The article to which Agent 17 referred me appears on The Daily Beast website today. Here are a couple of paragraphs.

Lawrence also took the trouble to think about how to defeat an insurgency as well as waging a successful one himself. He advised strongly against bombing insurgent villages (drones did not yet exist, but he imagined them), since that would inevitably involve killing innocent women and children, and would make revenge for their death a duty for every surviving family member, as well as for their clan and tribe. He recommended dropping leaflets warning the villagers that something of value and importance to them would be bombed and allowing them time enough to remove their families and flocks before doing so.

He also took the view, as he had in the Arab Revolt, that it was easier and cheaper to buy the tribes off than to fight them: gold was as important weapon to him as explosives. He was in favor of the use of fast armored cars operating far behind the enemy lines, and supplied by aircraft, roving at will and attacking by surprise.

Lying on his cot in a barracks at an RAF station in what is now Pakistan, Lawrence wrote to his old friend Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard, the Chief of the Air Staff (this was the equivalent of a private writing to a four-star general and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), of a troublesome insurgent leader in Iraq (Sunni insurgency against a Western occupier in Iraq is not a new phenomenon): “The fellow you need to influence is Feisal el Dueish... If I were at Ur, my instinct would be to walk without notice into his headquarters. He’s not likely to kill an unarmed, solitary man. . . Such performances require a manner to carry them off. I’ve done it four times, or is it five? A windy business. . .”

Note that the suggestion of fearlessly walking unarmed into the headquarters of an insurgent leader implies an understanding of the Muslim tradition and obligation of hospitality toward a guest, even an enemy guest, and also a willingness to listen to the other person’s grievances, an important point.

Bombing people will seldom change their mind, and certainly not about their own government, whether done by the Turks against the Arabs in 1918, or by the British against the Iraqis in the 1920s, or with drones in Afghanistan today.

Where are the T.E. Lawrences of yesteryear when we need them today? Leadership isn't much good without vision and imagination. I don't see a whole lot of that on display in Washington, Ottawa or London. So, since no-one seems to have a better plan, why don't we chip in and send a copy of Korda's book to Messrs. Cameron, Harper and Obama, and let them learn from Lawrence.