T. E. Lawrence of Arabia & Stamps

'Twas watching a documentary about T. E. Lawrence - the one and only
"Lawrence of Arabia" a few nights ago.

This is some of the stuff that got me into stamp collecting - those
far away places, conflicts, victories, mystery, intrigue - life away
from the states!

Lawrence was a man of considerable fortitude, if nothing else. He
helped the arabs win many battles with the Turks, like at Aqaba. He
befriended influential arabs and proved to be a useful British weapon
during WWI. I've been interested in the Dardanelles campaign more
lately because little of it seems to appear.

Many of us heard of Gallipolli - the disastrous attempt by British and
Anzac troops to take the cliffs and shore area around Achi Baba. The
Turks had the high ground and were defending it almost on a
shoestring!

I also, recently, watched the retouched movie about Lawrence and
compared the 2 shows in my thinking...

After WWI ended, 3 larger countries were split off the Ottoman Empire
- Transjordan, under British influence, Mesopotamia - Iraq, under
British inluence and Syria under French influence. The French
believed that they had dibs on Syria for many years and want in on the
spoils.

It's truly bizarre to think that the U.S. had their hand in the region
first. Many believe this, however inept in their opinions they are.
The truth is up above. The U.S. didn't battle much, if anything, in
the Turkish campaign.

It's also quite amazing that all of the smaller "British
Protectorates" withstood the test of time on the peninsula as well,
such as Bahrain, Dubai, Oman, Yemen. Saudi Arabia was Hejaz during
the war, right?

These are what we now called "Dunes", a degrading term in philately.
It means CTO, over-issuing abuses and undesirable stamps created by
dubious companies for profit on newcomers.

Watching the show(s) - to get back to - the topic, is like a trip
through a stamp album. I didn't see a fennec, but that's another
topic for another time. :^)

Comments?

Tracy Barber