It must be Genghis Khan week here at The Studio. A post with a long-ish provenance, this one is from the LA Times and the Mahablog and via the group history blog Cliopatria and Jonathan Dresner, the man behind the cornerstone of the Chinese history blogosphere, Frog in a Well.
What would Genghis do? Or Julius Caesar? Or Abe Lincoln? What would they say if asked to give counsel on the issue of Iraq?
Speaking for Caesar, Adrian Goldsworthy suggests: When Caesar led his legions into Gaul — basically present-day France and Belgium — in 58 BC, many of the tribes there greeted him as a liberator. Six years later, almost all of them rebelled against him in a war fought with appalling savagery. Through skill and luck, Caesar won. He then spent the better part of two years in painstaking diplomacy. As one of his own officers put it: “Caesar had one main aim, keeping the tribes friendly and giving them neither the opportunity nor cause for war.” It worked, and Gaul remained at peace when he left in 49 BC.
And what of old friend Genghis? As most people know, Genghis’ hordes conquered Mesopotamia in 1258. Genghis