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AqabaJuly 07, 2006 Yesterday was the 89th anniversary of the fall of Aqaba. July 6, 1917. Arab irregulars -- Bedu from several tribes, led by (among others) a British captain, T. E. Lawrence, in the name of the sharif of Mecca -- took it from the Turks, who thought it was impregnable. If you remember Lawrence of Arabia half as well as I do, the solution to the riddle is even now running through your mind, in Peter O'Toole's voice and with Peter O'Toole's face: "From the landward side there are no guns at Aqaba." All the irregulars had to do to approach from the landward side was cross a desert widely assumed to be uncrossable. I've still never seen a desert, but plenty of times I see my life as a slog across inhospitable terrain toward a city where I am not expected and may not be especially welcome. Wonderful things, metaphors. Doing without this, that, and the other means of sustenance I can manage, but I've no interest in dying of thirst. Another line from the movie that surfaces frequently from the memory bank is "I'm looking for a way to announce myself." Since this is followed very shortly by capture and the grueling scene at Deraa, you think I'd be more cautious but I'm not. I've just made a big bowl of salad (garbanzos, raisins, feta, shredded carrots, broccoli, and chopped red onion; no lettuce, because it has to stay edible for several days) while listening to Les Barker's Yelp!, a very funny CD that includes Pete Morton singing Barker's parody of Morton's "Another Train" and the slyly, perilously funny "Manzanasol" (starring Tony Blair and Dubya Bush; say it out loud -- get it?). The first track is "Lots of Oil" (words by Barker, music by Bizet. The liner notes describe the song: "It was topical when TE Lawrence wrote to the Times in July 1920 to ask why there was an occupation when the Arabs would much prefer liberty. It will continue to be topical until we treat other people as human beings and not merely elements of our economic interest." What goes around, goes around and around and around. From the landward side there are no guns at Aqaba. Pass the word.
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