Old Ottoman Bastion, Shaar, Asir. January 2016
[from FB post: March 4, 2017]
What is War Anyway?
I was just coming back from the barber and ran into Dr. Rafiq, one of my neighbors and also my colleague at the university. He is a lovely person both inside and outside of work -- he also from Yemen. "Why are you coming to my building?" I asked. "Oh I have some relatives visiting from Yemen." He said they were leaving on Wednesday and I asked about crossing the border. "no problem". Huh?? Saudi Arabia and Yemen are at war but the border remains open for people and goods. Most of our fresh fruits and vegetables here come from Yemen.
It reminds me of visiting Da Lat, Vietnam, a famous hill town where the French and later the Vietnamese came to escape the heat of the plains. During the Vietnam War, the American generals had their villas to relax in, and so did the Viet Cong generals. The town saw no major battles and there were never any landmines set there. It was just agreed - "we won't fight here".
These kinds of things really stand the word "war" on its head for me. If you are fighting, then you are fighting, right? Or is it only fighting some of the time but if it's inconvenient then not??
Very strange.
The Ottoman fortifications all around Abha stood to remind me that the region was never 100% at peace. Saudi national history these days claims that the locals INVITED the Ottomans to protect the Hejaz for pilgrims going to and from the holy cities. Well, that is one way of looking at it. Given how much animosity I still saw between tribes in a time of relative peace in Saudi Arabia, I can't even imagine what it was like in the before times. Perhaps the Ottomans were not only protecting the mountain passes that guarded the roads up into the interior of the peninsula, but they were also making sure the locals didn't continue skirmishing amongst themselves?
The Shaar fortification had a commanding position overlooking the main road to Abha up from the Tihama (Red Sea coastal plains). A winding and punishing ascent/descent, compared to the other roads nearby, the one at Shaar was still by far the easiest for heavy trucks to navigate. Perhaps that had been the case for ages since the Ottomans built a huge fortification at the escarpment edge overlooking the winding road. The fort was totally unrenovated and was slowly decaying behind a large gas station. I visited with AQ once and was surprised to see such a substantial archeological site basically abandoned. I am not sure if one of these days the Saudis will recognize the Ottoman colonial era and restore its many vestiges in the country or not?
Meanwhile, it seems "war" is a term that exists on a sliding scale, being a matter of political recognition as well. Two factions can be very violently confronting each other with a lot of death and destruction and not be at war (like the PKK Kurds who hide out in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Turks who bomb them relentlessly). There also can be a "war" going on where very little action is taking place or the conflict is concentrated in just a few areas, yet the two sides are "at war" (like Saudi Arabia and Yemen). Did the above Shaar fortification ever see "action"? or was it just a deterrent? Is its state of ruin due to age and lack of maintenance or did it see any battles? For the moment, the Saudis don't even want to remember.
I have now lived in two war zones and felt totally untouched both times (Thank God!). Of course, war causes great suffering and death, but the reality of it continues to puzzle me.