Siege of Medina
But they would not fit, and it worried me.hitherto, Medina had been
had been an obsession for us all; but now that I was ill, its image was not
clear, whether
it was that we were near to it (one seldom liked the attainable, or whether it was that my eyes were misty with too constant
staring at the butt. One afternoon I woke from a hot sleep, running with sweat and pricking with flies, and wondered what on earth was the good of Medina to us? Its harmfulness had been patent When we were at Yenbo and the Turks in it were going to Mecca: but we had changed all that by our march to Wejh. To-day we were blockading the railway, and they only defending it. The garrison of Medina, reduced to an inoffensive size, were sitting in trenches, destroying their own power of movement by eating the transport they could nolonger feed. We had taken away their power to harm us, and Yet wanted to take away their town. It was not a base for us like Wejh, nor a threat like Wadi Ais. What on earth did we want it for?
The camp was bestirring itself after the torpor of the midday hours; and noises from the world outside began to filter in to me past the yellow lining of the tent-canvas, whose every hole and tear was stabbed through by a long dagger of sunlight. I heard the stamping and snorting of the horses plagued with flies where they stood in the shadow of the trees, the complaint of camels, the ringing of coffee mortars, distant shots. To their burden I began to drum out the aim in war. The books gave it pat—the destruction of the armed forces of the enemy by the one process—battle. Victory could be purchased only by blood. This was a hard saying for us. As the Arabs had no organised forces, a Turkish Foch would have no aim? The Arabs would not endure casualties. How would our Clausewitz buy his victory? Von der Goltz had seemed to go , saying it was necessary not to annihilate the enemy, but to break his courage.Only , we showed no prospect of ever breaking anybody’s courage. However, Goltz was a humbug, and these wise men must be talking metaphors ; for we were indubitably winning our war; and as I pondered, slosly lowly it dawned on me that we had won the Hejaz wat. Out of every thousand square miles of Hejaz nine hundred and ninety-nine were now free. Did my provoked jape at Vickery, that rebellion was more like peace than like war, hold as much truth as haste?
Perhaps in war the absolute did rule, but for peace a majority168
