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October
3, 2001
Ariel
Dorfman:
America
the Wounded
Lennie
Brenner
Dr.
Watson in Afghanistan
Steve
Perry:
Ashcroft's
Scare Tactics
October
2, 2001
Patrick
Cockburn:
Inside
an Afghan Hospital
Richard
Manning:
A
Vietnam Vet on Patriotism
St. Clair/Cockburn:
Tarnished
Star,
Tom Ridge in Vietnam
October
1, 2001
Noam
Chomsky:
Memo
to Hitchens
Hizam
Bitar:
Refuting
Michael Kinsley
David Grenier:
The
Good, The Bad,
and the Ugly
Douglas
Valentine:
Homeland
Insecurity
Carl
Estabrook:
Stop Bush's Killing
Mahajan/Jensen:
Food,
Fear and War
Patrick
Cockburn:
Ready
to Strike
Cockburn/St.
Clair:
Things
Could Be Worse
Terry
Allen:
Early
Profit-taking and 9/11
September
29, 2001
Steve Perry:
The
Pentagon's Blueprint
Patrick
Cockburn:
When
Will the Missiles Fall?
September
28, 2001
Edward Said:
Backlash
and Backtrack
John Troyer:
When
Language Fails
Patrick
Cockburn:
In
Afghanistan, Waiting for the Real War to Start
Steve Breyman:
War,
Oil and Renewables
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October
3, 2001
Watson
and Holmes
in Afghanistan
By Lennie Brenner
It's said that there is nothing like
being hung in the morning to focus the mind. An oncoming war
in Afghanistan serves the same function. Doing research on the
country, I came across a literary curiosity. It is central to
the creation of two of literature's most famous names, Sherlock
Holmes & John H Watson, MD.
The details are in Thaddeus
Holts '''You have been in Afghanistan,' I perceive," in
the Military History Quarterly, W 94.
Doctor Arthur Conan Doyle's
A Study in Scarlet, is supposed to be a reprint from the Reminiscences
of John H. Watson, MD, late of the Army medical Department.
Watson tells us how,
"In the year 1878 I took
my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London,
and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for
surgeons in the Army. Having completed my studies there, I was
duly attached to the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant
surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and
before I could join it, the 2nd Afghan war had broken out. On
landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through
the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's country. I followed,
however, with many other officers who were in the same situation
as myself, and succeeded in reaching Kandahar in safety, where
I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.
"The campaign brought
honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but
misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached
to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of
Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet,
which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I
should have fallen into the hands of the murderous ghazis had
it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my
orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in
bringing me safely to the British lines."
Conan Doyle tells us that Watson,
in England on convalescent leave, was introduced by a medical
friend to Holmes (according to "Consulting Detective,"
by Wendell Scherer. Holmes comes from Holmes Row, near Waterloo
Rd in London.) and they shared lodgings at 221B Baker St. Recall
Watson's introduction to his friend & hero:
"'You have been in Afghanistan,
I perceive,' said Holmes. 'How on earth did you know that?'
asked Watson in astonishment. 'Never mind,' Holmes replied,
chuckling to himself."
Holt, who serves on the advisory
board of the excellent scholarly journal, traces both Watson
& Holmes to 2nd Afghan war vets, and their disaster at Maiwand
in July of 1880. Watson was Surgeon-Major A F Preston, wounded
there. Holmes was based on a gunner an artillery man, named Sherlock,
in the retinue of a Veterinary-Major with the Royal Artillery,
who escaped from the slaughter.
In A Study in Scarlet, it is
only Watson who is an old Afghan hand. Via literary & military
detective work, worthy of Holmes himself, Holt found that Sherlock
had his Afghan tale to tell. This being the case, we will allow
ourselves to call on the twosome, so knowledgeable on the ground,
to lead the investigation into the whodunits, the guilty American
politicians and military who turned Afghan fundamentalism, a
declining force, into a world power, in their zeal to defeat
the Soviet regime in Afghanistan, 1979-89.
Equally crucial, we must remember
that, as with the Vietnam war, we have a message for today's
gunner Sherlocks. The pols are leading them into wars and politics
they know nothing about. They more those American grunts learn
about how they got into this ultimate far off war, the more
they will say to their misleaders, "you got us into this
horror. You have no right to send us off to our deaths, trying
to put out fires you started. US out of Afghanistan. Politicians
out of Washington." CP
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