Trojan Horses of History
by Rit NosotroComparative Essay
Compare a few “Trojan Horses” of history. When have treaties been made only as a trick to bide time in order to build up military force? Think of why Hitler was offered appeasement. Did he make promises he did not intent to keep? How about Muhammad’s attack on Mecca? Were the Oslo Accords a Trojan Horse?
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Summary:
There have been several Trojan Horses since the first. While they have not all been large wooden structures, only has been like that, they do all have one characteristic that makes them all a Trojan horse. They have all been presented as something other than what they are thought or meant to be by the creator. They have all been used in the name of one thing, while started or publicized in the name of another. Some of those have been the Oslo Accords of 1993, Muhammad’s Attack on Mecca, and of the course the real beginner of them all, the actual wooden horse of Troy.
The first Trojan horse could be seen as an act of desperation. After Paris, a prince of troy, stole Helen, The King of Sparta’s wife, the Greeks attacked Troy with vengeance. Yet after ten years they still were no closer to breeching the walls of Troy than they were when they had first began. The Greek, Odysseus, ordered a large, hollow, wooden horse to be built and hide many Greek soldiers inside. The rest of the Greek fleet sailed away leaving one man, Sinon, behind to fool the Trojans into believing that the Greeks had given up and left the horse as a offering to the gods. The Trojans pulled the horse inside the great walls of troy and feasted their luck. That night when all the Trojans were either asleep or drunk, Sinon let the Greeks out. They killed all the men and male children and took many of the women and female children captive. The destruction of troy was possible because of one thing, the horse, was presented as a gift, and used for another purpose, destruction.
Another Trojan horse was Muhammad’s attack on Mecca. Muhammad marched on Mecca with every intention of destroying it in about 622 A.D. When he got there he was offered a treaty, which he signed, to become an ally. He sealed the treaty in most people’s eyes by marrying the daughter of a predominant government official. As Muhammad was an ally by treaty, the Meccans believed that they had nothing to fear from him. They were wrong. Several years after the treaty was signed an ally of Mecca’s attacked an ally of Muhammad’s. Muhammad took this as an excuse to attack Mecca. As the Meccans had considered him a friend and had not prepared for such an attack there was no resistance. Because of a treaty, a Trojan horse, signed years before Muhammad was able to take complete charge of Mecca with out any blood shed or fighting at all.
A third Trojan horse was the Oslo Peace Accords of 1993. The Oslo Accords were a series of agreements negotiated between the Israeli government and Palestine Liberation Organization. They were originally initiated by the Norwegian government, who was friendly with both sides. They were signed on August 20, 1993 and a subsequent public ceremony was held in Washington D.C. on September 13, 1993. The agreement involved the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and West Bank and the Palestinian right to self govern in those areas. This was a temporary agreement to last five years while more permanent conditions would be discussed. Until they reached a final status the Gaze Strip and West Bank would actually be in three different zones. Area A would have full Palestinian control, B would be a Palestinian civil control and Israeli military control, and C would be full Israeli control. The two groups signed letters of mutual recognition. The Israeli government recognized the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the legitimate representation of the Palestinian people while the Palestinian Liberation Organization recognized the rights of Israel to exist and renounce terrorism, violence and its desire for the destruction of Israel.
In the year 200 Bill Clinton sought to keep the Oslo Peace process moving forward through the Camp David 200 Summit. That attempt failed causing many groups to view the Oslo Accords as a failure. The years 2001 through early 2003 saw an escalation of violence by Palestine and military reoccupation of the west bank by the Israeli Defense Force making farther discussions unlikely. The Oslo Accords, while presented as peace agreement were seen by both groups as a means to an end. Faysal Al-Husseine said in an interview which actually turned out to be his last as he died soon after, “the [ancient] Greek Army was unable to break into Troy due to [internal] disputes and disagreements [among themselves]. The Greek forces started retreating one after the other, and the Greek king ended up facing the walls of Troy all by himself, and he too suffered from illnesses and [internal] disputes, and ended up leading a failed assault on Troy's walls. [Following these events] the people of Troy climbed on top of the walls of their city and could not find any traces of the Greek army, except for a giant wooden horse. They cheered and celebrated thinking that the Greek troops were routed, and while retreating left a harmless wooden horse as spoils of war. So they opened the gates of the city and brought in the wooden horse. We all know what happened next.
Had the U.S. and Israel not realized, before Oslo, that all that was left of the Palestinian National movement and the Pan-Arab movement was a wooden horse called Arafat or the PLO, they would never have opened their fortified gates and let it inside their walls. Despite the fact that we entered these walls in order to build, unlike the Greeks who entered them in order to destroy, I now tell you all, all these to whom I spoke in a secret meeting during the days of Oslo: 'climb into the horse and don't question what type of material the horse is made of. Climb into the horse, and we shall transform your climbing into that horse into a beginning of a building era rather than an era of the end of hope. And indeed, there are those who climbed unto the horse and are [now] inside [the PA territory] whether they supported the Oslo Accords or not." "Your words remind me of the famous meeting we had with all the Palestinian factions three years following Arafat and the PLO's return to Gaza...the debate revolved around the same issues you are raising - i.e., democracy, corruption, etc. In that meeting - and those who attended are still alive and can attest to it - I asked to speak. I told everyone: three years ago I said 'climb into the horse' and everyone entered into the horse and the horse entered into the walled-in [area]. Now, the time has come for us to say: 'come out of the horse and start working. 1” Even one of the Palestinian group recognized the Oslo Peace Accords as a Trojan Horse from the very beginning.
There have been many Trojan horses throughout history. Many groups and kingdoms have attempted to deceive others or to present something as a means to an end. The first was the wooden horse of Greece and Try, the most recent being the Oslo Accords of Israel and Palestine. There will probably be many more before the end of history.
Sources:
1 June 24, 2001 Edition of the Egyptian Newspaper ‘Al-Arabi’
World Wide Web
www.history.byu.edu
www.answering-islam.org
www.ask.com
www.meforum.org/article/480
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