Jottings from the Granite Studio

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 Khan biographer Jack Weatherford writes:

Genghis Khan recognized that victory came by conquering people, not land or cities. In contrast to the Americans in 2003, who sought to take the largest cities first in a campaign of shock and awe, the Mongols in 1258 took the smallest settlements first, gradually working toward the capital. Both the Mongols and the Americans used heavy bombardment to topple Baghdad, but whereas the Americans rushed into the capital in a triumphant victory celebration, the Mongols wisely decided not to enter the defeated — but still dangerous — city. They ordered the residents to evacuate, and then they sent in Christian and Muslim allies, who seethed with a variety of resentments against the caliph, to expunge any pockets of resistance and secure the capital. The Americans ended up as occupiers; the Mongols pulled strings, watching from camps in the countryside. …

… Fundamentalist Muslims look back at Mongol secularism as a scourge. But, although U.S. rule in Iraq has produced a constant flow of refugees, particularly religious minorities, out of the country, under Mongol rule Christian, Muslim, Jewish and even Buddhist immigrants poured into the newly conquered Iraq to live under the Great Law of Genghis Khan. It was said that during this time a virgin could cross the length of the Mongol Empire with a pot of gold on her head and never be molested.

The Mahablog also gives sample advice from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as well as links to the full LA Times op-ed pieces from each author.