- E. Knickmeyer, "The
Woman Who Put Iraq on the Map. Gertrude Bell, Resting in Relative Peace,"
in The Washington Post, March
5, 2006: "Visitors reach the graves of the first Western empire
builders in Iraq by first pretending to throw a rock at the graveyard
dog. ... the grave keeper's head. The man, dressed in rough, cheap
clothes, can't think of where any British lady might be buried in this
cemetery full of the remains of British soldiers and their Hindu and
Sikh underlings, legions of what turned out to be a transient world
empire." "... nostalgia for Bell, and for the stronger hand Britons
were seen as wielding during their rule here, ha[s] become something of
a fad among Americans. Bell's name pops up often in conversations with
U.S. officials, apropos of nothing except a measure of disorder and
despair." "At the British cemetery in today's Baghdad, the hundreds of
graves of the British empire make searching for her grave futile, and
the open metal bars of the cemetery gates make it dangerous. Visitors
leave with her grave not found and, ultimately, not too closely
sought." [sic transit gloria mundi;
even for famed archaeologists and advisers to kings and ministers;
interesting article full of irony...; for corrections, see Miller and August March 28]
Photo: "Gertrude Bell, above [sic; not in the web version], served as
Britain's Oriental secretary in Iraq, and complained at the time of
Sunni-Shiite conflicts, which to this day bedevil U.S. efforts to
create a democracy there. Along with many of her compatriots, Bell is
said to be buried in a Baghdad cemetery, right. Photo Credit: By
Omar Fekeiki -- The Washington Post Photo" [the monumental tomb is of
the British Lt. Gen. Stanley Maude, the one of the (in)famous "Our
armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies,
but as liberators" speech]
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