History Lesson

When Amenhotep II returned from his triumphant suppression of a Syrio-Palestinian uprising (at least he claimed a victory), he did not return to a land euphoric with his display of Egyptian power - instead, he found his father, Thutmose III, dead, his older brother, Thutmose IV dead, his oldest son dead, and the nation in mourning at the mass death which had just occurred, a devastated economy, and a major portion of the national workforce gone.

What should have been a ticker-tape parade through downtown Luxor turned into a rampage through Egypt that would have made Sherman' s march through the South seem compassionate.

A crazed general and his battle-fatigued troops found that all that they had fought to defend and uphold with blood and treasure had completely disappeared while they were out of town and they reacted with madness and violence. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of innocents died, cities were razed, a trail of smoke and rubble marked Amenhotep trek home.

Do we really know why Amenhotep attacked his own land? Not really. But can we imagine that in his search for answers and reasons, finding only platitudes and non-answers, that he struck out blindly at those he deemed responsible and the quest rolled over targets and blameless alike; can we not envision the psychic shock he and the army must have experienced?

We do know that Egypt never truly recovered and the civilization began an unchecked decline.

For over eight years in Afghanistan, and six years in Iraq, our soldiers and our Generals have waged war in an asymmetrical environment, against an uncertain enemy, to achieve polemical and contradictory goals.

When our exhausted fighters return home, they do not find themselves heralded as conquering heroes, or defenders of freedom, or even recognized publicly as the special and courageous people they are, but are avoided and labelled as threats to domestic tranquility, denied the most basic of care and restoration...thrown away to die from the poisons they were administered and the psychological trauma they experienced.

At home they find their families poorer, their neighbors spys, the freedoms they believed they were defending diminished, and their prospects limited.

Some even suggest they find more comfort on the battlefield than in the home.

Our putative leaders need a history lesson - from Egypt.

Is there an Amenhotep in the American army? If there is, the regime needs to be aware (as if they were not already) the threat is not against the American people.