Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Bookslut | A Trifecta of Eastern Conquest
Bookslut A Trifecta of Eastern Conquest: "April 2006
Elizabeth Kiem
features
A Trifecta of Eastern Conquest
When the Mongol emperor Tamerlane conquered Baghdad in 1401 he commanded that each of his soldiers bring back two heads from the populace and stack them in a pyramid. At the end of the day there were 120 such towers circling the city, each of them swarming with vultures. The Tigris ran red and every house was in ashes.
That�s some shock and awe.
Alexander the Great was in Babylon at the height of his way-B.C. grandeur. He was gentle with the population, unusually so, and so they prostrated themselves at his feet and feted him with their famous whores for a month.
That�s a mission accomplished.
The two great warriors hit Mesopotamia eighteen hundred years apart, but both are equally ancient history to us today. To read of the breadth of their conquests, the savagery of their vengeance and the opulence of their occupations is to realize just how amateurish was our grim little 20th century (not to mention the lackluster first decade of the modern millennium) when it comes to Greatness with a capital G.
Indeed, looked at next to the annals of the ancients, the era of post-industrial progress is a study in shrinkage. Our cities may be sprawling but our borders are puny. A world in which huge plums called Tartary, Anatolia and the Celestial Empire beckoned plunderers has been carved into a thousand dinky nation-states measuring wealth in percentages, not elephants.
We have very large guns, to be sure, but the size of our threats, constricted with sanctions and protocols, are laughable when heard next to the ultimatums of the �Scourge of God,� Tamerlane, who wrote the Khans of Hindustan that if they set any value upon their lives, property and reputation, they will pay me yearly tribute, and"
Elizabeth Kiem
features
A Trifecta of Eastern Conquest
When the Mongol emperor Tamerlane conquered Baghdad in 1401 he commanded that each of his soldiers bring back two heads from the populace and stack them in a pyramid. At the end of the day there were 120 such towers circling the city, each of them swarming with vultures. The Tigris ran red and every house was in ashes.
That�s some shock and awe.
Alexander the Great was in Babylon at the height of his way-B.C. grandeur. He was gentle with the population, unusually so, and so they prostrated themselves at his feet and feted him with their famous whores for a month.
That�s a mission accomplished.
The two great warriors hit Mesopotamia eighteen hundred years apart, but both are equally ancient history to us today. To read of the breadth of their conquests, the savagery of their vengeance and the opulence of their occupations is to realize just how amateurish was our grim little 20th century (not to mention the lackluster first decade of the modern millennium) when it comes to Greatness with a capital G.
Indeed, looked at next to the annals of the ancients, the era of post-industrial progress is a study in shrinkage. Our cities may be sprawling but our borders are puny. A world in which huge plums called Tartary, Anatolia and the Celestial Empire beckoned plunderers has been carved into a thousand dinky nation-states measuring wealth in percentages, not elephants.
We have very large guns, to be sure, but the size of our threats, constricted with sanctions and protocols, are laughable when heard next to the ultimatums of the �Scourge of God,� Tamerlane, who wrote the Khans of Hindustan that if they set any value upon their lives, property and reputation, they will pay me yearly tribute, and"
BayouBuzz.com - Louisiana Politics and News
BayouBuzz.com - Louisiana Politics and News: "Condoleezza Rice�s Napoleon Complex Over Iraq
World/US
Author: Sarah Whalen 4/2/2006Home : Politics
Also By this Reporter: Condoleezza Rice�s Napoleon Complex Over Iraq
Face It Dick Cheney: Resign Now
Who killed Pat Tillman?
If Whittington Shot Dick Cheney
Take Arab Out of Gulf Emirates Ports
Dick Cheney Witless Over Whittington
Did U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice say the Bush Administration�s made 'thousands of tactical errors' in Iraq, but the 'right strategic decision?'
Or is that Napoleon, speaking through Condi from the grave as Hillary channeled Eleanor Roosevelt?
Actually, perhaps it would be wise to get Nappy on the psychic red phone. They could have a heck of a discussion about taking on the Middle East�.
Napoleon was a great warrior in battle, and he and his soldiers did leave their mark on the Middle East�their graffiti abounds on Egypt�s mosques, pyramids and citadel. Napoleon also relieved the Middle East he 'conquered' in 1798 of a bunch of neat obelisks now centering ritzy Paris boulevards and some very nice art and antiquities now sitting in the Louvre�looting and pillaging being that 'messy' democratic element even then.
But is the Middle East any more French today for Napoleon having conquered it?
Kinda. Sorta. But not in the dramatic way that Condi and her fellow fellow thinkers envision.
You can hear French spoken in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and sometimes in Egypt and elsewhere; there�s a smattering of French civil law limping about; and every once in a while, the odd architectural element pops out at you when you least expect it. And you can usually rustle up some very nice cui"
World/US
Author: Sarah Whalen 4/2/2006Home : Politics
Also By this Reporter: Condoleezza Rice�s Napoleon Complex Over Iraq
Face It Dick Cheney: Resign Now
Who killed Pat Tillman?
If Whittington Shot Dick Cheney
Take Arab Out of Gulf Emirates Ports
Dick Cheney Witless Over Whittington
Did U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice say the Bush Administration�s made 'thousands of tactical errors' in Iraq, but the 'right strategic decision?'
Or is that Napoleon, speaking through Condi from the grave as Hillary channeled Eleanor Roosevelt?
Actually, perhaps it would be wise to get Nappy on the psychic red phone. They could have a heck of a discussion about taking on the Middle East�.
Napoleon was a great warrior in battle, and he and his soldiers did leave their mark on the Middle East�their graffiti abounds on Egypt�s mosques, pyramids and citadel. Napoleon also relieved the Middle East he 'conquered' in 1798 of a bunch of neat obelisks now centering ritzy Paris boulevards and some very nice art and antiquities now sitting in the Louvre�looting and pillaging being that 'messy' democratic element even then.
But is the Middle East any more French today for Napoleon having conquered it?
Kinda. Sorta. But not in the dramatic way that Condi and her fellow fellow thinkers envision.
You can hear French spoken in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and sometimes in Egypt and elsewhere; there�s a smattering of French civil law limping about; and every once in a while, the odd architectural element pops out at you when you least expect it. And you can usually rustle up some very nice cui"
