0544 - BooShaa

Once more we have to call on the deep and profound wisdom of our Readers. In a recent article in Time, there was a review of a book titled Skeletons of the Zahara. [Readers of course know that “Zahara” is an alternate spelling of “Sahara”.] The book is about a shipwrecked captain, James Riley, whose brig was shipwrecked and with his crew, and all were “taken as slaves by the Boo Shaa, a tribe of nomadic arabs who scratched out a perilous living in the Sahara, trading and feuding and drinking surprising amounts of camel urine.” We wished to call this curious sentence to your attention – since drinking any camel urine is surprising – but first, we checked out the name of the tribe on Google. Well, there is simply no Google reference to the Boo Shaa, nor one to the Bou Shaa, nor the Boo Shia. We also went to that well-known [to you] web site www.learnassyrian.com, where there was no help to be found, either. So, we task you, erudite Readers, with checking this out. Otherwise, we'll have to buy the book.

Our Staff's week was spent like yours, no doubt, staring at Condi Rice on the TV and then watching the perfectly abysmal mess in Iraq, brought to you by the same clever lady and her co-planners. We, of course, were prepared for a convoluted Iraqi mess, since we had read Foreign Affairs and the wise words of those who knew something about the unhappy group relationships in that country had warned us to stay away. The experts all said that the Iraqis did not play nicely together, although we never suspected they incinerated and then danced in the streets in joy.

Frankly, we conclude that those who organized this trip to Mesopotamia didn't know what they were doing; that, at least, is plain enough. There is a difference between being clever and being wise. Wisdom consists in knowing what you do not know, and that sums up the Iraq disaster in a rather small nutshell. Bah! What happened to the old Harry Truman slogan about where the Buck stops? If the so-called “Intelligence” was that the place was stuffed with WMD, and there are no WMD, shouldn't the buck stop? Did we need to start a Muslim jihad against ourselves?

If we were a parent of a young Iraqi boy, we would instruct him in some basic truths, such as that it is a bad idea to throw stones at tanks. Since no such instruction has been given, let alone advice against burning and dismembering as an occasion for dancing in the streets, we deduce that there is something seriously wrong there.

Our Staff Ethicist submits, rather gloomily, that everywhere in the world, peoples have the Governments they deserve. The Iraqis had Saddam, and that was their fault, and their duty to dispose of him. In Haiti, for another sad example, the miserable place has suffered for many decades under a series of cruel and rapacious rulers. So, in most African countries, there are rulers who rape, pillage, and oppress. This is most regrettable, and should be discouraged, but the problem lies within, and cannot be cured or even alleviated by invasion from without.

We can hear those who disagree asking what we would do now in Iraq. Well, we'd scour the dismal place for rifles and such, and explosives, and destroy all we could find. We'd arm some police and depart, with best wishes and promises of educational and humanitarian aid to come if they behave, and camel urine if they don't. Save thyselves, people.

Next time: Kelly System [OO #545]

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