The lessons of Lawrence

Iraqi insurgents have frustrated U.S. forces using tactics traced to Lawrence of Arabia

BY MOHAMAD BAZZI | MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT

March 5, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon - If anyone can claim credit for inventing the improvised explosive device, it's Lawrence of Arabia.

When insurgents in Iraq use IEDs to attack armored vehicles and disrupt U.S. supply lines, they are taking a page from the less-advanced tactics of T.E. Lawrence, the British adventurer who pioneered guerrilla warfare during the 1916-18 Arab revolt against Turkish rule. His main lesson for insurgents: If you're facing a bigger and better-armed adversary, don't engage him directly.

Lawrence introduced many innovations to modern guerrilla wars, but perhaps his most effective technique was the use of mines to disrupt Turkish trains and supply convoys. "We had proved that a well-laid mine would fire; and that a well-laid mine was difficult even for its maker to discover," he wrote in his 1922 memoir, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom." "Mines were the best weapon yet discovered to make the regular working of their trains costly and uncertain for our Turkish enemy."

Today, Iraqi insurgents are using more powerful explosives and sophisticated methods to detonate their IEDs, but the basic purpose is the same as it was in Lawrence's time: to inflict casualties and damage the morale of a militarily superior enemy.

IEDs have been the leading cause of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq, accounting for more than half of those killed since February of last year. Overall, 724 U.S. troops have been killed by IEDs since the American invasion in March 2003.

As U.S. casualties mounted, the Pentagon created an IED Task Force in 2004 to find technological solutions and to better protect U.S. troops. Last year, military officials spent about $1.2 billion on counter-IED measures, and this year they plan to spend $3.5 billion.

U.S. officials have said repeatedly that if they solved the IED problem, the insurgency would be brought under control. "It's the only tool the enemy really has left in order to be able to take us on and cause casualties," Lt. Gen. James Conway, head of the Operations Directorate at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in November. "And when we defeat that one method, you know, it's over."

Lawrence likely would disagree. He once famously said that suppressing a rebellion "is messy and slow, like eating soup with a knife."

In his memoir, Lawrence argued that a native insurgency that is mobile and has natural cover and support from the population would always wear down a foreign occupier. "Granted mobility, security, time, and doctrine, victory will rest with the insurgents," he wrote.

Lawrence - who was immortalized in the 1962 film classic starring Peter O'Toole - first traveled to the Middle East in the early 1910s on an archaeological expedition. He was a fluent Arabic speaker and well-versed in Arab culture. When World War I broke out, he became a British intelligence officer in Cairo. He soon befriended Arab tribal leaders who were leading a revolt against Turkey, a German ally.

As the Arabs' British liaison, Lawrence quickly became the military architect of the rebellion. He led small groups of fighters on raids against Turkish convoys and taught his guerrillas to plant mines underneath bridges and railroad tracks. "My pupils practiced the art of mining afterwards by themselves, and taught others," he wrote in "Seven Pillars."

He amplified the psychological impact of the bombings, creating a climate of fear and mistrust that demoralized the Turks. Over a four-month period in 1916, his guerrillas destroyed 17 Turkish locomotives, scaring passengers away from the more dangerous front of the train. "Traveling became an uncertain terror for the enemy," he wrote. "At Damascus, people scrambled for the back seats in trains, even paid extra for them. ... Civilian traffic nearly ceased."

Lawrence's book has inspired many modern insurgent leaders. Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese general who fought the French colonization of Vietnam in the 1950s, once told a French adversary: "My fighting gospel is T.E. Lawrence's 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom.' I am never without it."

While Iraqi insurgents are applying the military tactics developed by Lawrence, they are ignoring his political lessons. They have disregarded the principles - of Lawrence and others - that guided most rebellions of the 20th century: Try to win broad public support; create a political wing; present an alternative system of governing, and build international legitimacy. This insurgency also has no charismatic leader, no clear chain of command and not even a cohesive ideology.

Lawrence argued that, in order to succeed, insurgents must have at least passive support from the local population. "Rebellions can be made by 2 percent actively in the striking force and 98 percent passively sympathetic," he wrote.

Since a wave of car bombings began in August 2003, Iraqi insurgents have shown a willingness to kill civilians indiscriminately. With each new bombing that targeted a market, a mosque or a wedding party, the guerrillas lost another chance to win Iraqi hearts and minds.

Some segments of the insurgency are hoping to foment a sectarian war that would lead to the partitioning of Iraq into Sunni, Shia and Kurdish regions.

"In Iraq, the insurgents are deliberately killing large numbers of civilians," said Kamil Tawil, a Lebanese historian and expert on militant movements. "And that is turning a large segment of the population against them."

Still, the guerrillas are succeeding in spreading chaos across Iraq. They have nearly halted reconstruction, hamstrung the country's fledgling security forces and virtually pinned down the most powerful military in the world.

While they might not have scored many political victories, Iraqi insurgents have shown a remarkable ability to modify their military techniques. When U.S. forces began adding armor to Humvees and using electronic jammers to thwart IEDs detonated by radios or cell phones, the insurgents changed tactics. They started using different mechanisms to trigger bombs, applying larger amounts of explosives and experimenting with new methods to penetrate U.S. armor.

The guerrillas have a variety of explosives in their arsenal, ranging from TNT to artillery shells. Some also may be using the 380 tons of military-grade explosives - including HMX and RDX, both of which are more powerful than TNT - that was stolen from Iraqi bunkers after the U.S. invasion.

Insurgents are especially skilled at developing new methods to detonate their IEDs. Initially, they used cell phones or garage door openers to trigger bombs. But with U.S. forces deploying jammers, the guerrillas have relied on infrared beams, pressure switches and even garden hoses. When the hoses are run over by a vehicle, they send water into a bottle, activating the bomb's detonator.

"They're using low-technology methods to fight the most advanced military in the world," said an Iraqi security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "They study each attack, and they learn from their mistakes."

That's exactly what Lawrence of Arabia taught insurgents to do.