“The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor.”

— T. E. Lawrence

"Report on Mesopotamia" The Sunday Times (22 August 1920) http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918p/mesopo.html
Context: The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are today not far from a disaster.

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T. E. Lawrence 33

British archaeologist, military officer, and diplomat 1888–1935

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