The Seductive Allure of Foolishness
There is a single line of poetry attributed to the master of poets, Abu al-Ṭayyib ᾽Aḥmad al-Mutanabbī, in which he says:
“For every ailment there is a remedy sought —
Except for foolishness, which has exhausted those who try to cure it.”
American and Israeli policies over the past two decades perfectly embody this verse.
Risk-taking may produce good tactical outcomes in the short term, but it cannot be a stable long-term political strategy — especially in a constantly changing environment.
To illustrate this, I will give practical examples of those who were involved risk operations and achieved tactical victories, only to suffer long-term defeats and lose everything they had gained:
1. Julius Caesar’s War in Gaul (modern-day France):
This is one of the most prominent military campaigns in Roman history. It altered the course of the Roman Republic and paved the way for Caesar’s rise as an absolute power.
The war lasted eight years and ended with the defeat and surrender of Gaul — a significant tactical victory. However, it led to massive political division within the Roman Empire and sparked a series of internal and external wars, which eventually resulted in the assassination of Caesar himself and the deaths of many prominent Roman leaders such as Pompey, Cato, Brutus, Mark Antony, and dozens of others, along with the destruction of many cities and widespread rebellion in Greece, Egypt, and North Africa.
Strangely, at the very moment the Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent, it committed this foolish act that led to its downfall and fragmentation.
Stranger still is how the voice of foolishness, intoxicated by weapons and violence, overpowered the voice of wisdom. The war ended up killing the empire’s top thinkers, scholars, and military leaders — resulting in its long-term decline.
Therefore, is there a resemblance here between the current Israeli-American-Zionist situation and what happened in Caesar’s Rome?
2. Napoleon’s Grand Mistake:
After Napoleon’s sweeping victories across Europe — especially the 1805 Battle of Austerlitz, in which he crushed the Austrian and Russian armies, and the 1806 battles of Jena and Auerstedt against the Germans — he made his gravest blunder, driven by the same motives as Caesar: arrogance of power and the lust to impose his will.
In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia with a massive army of nearly 400,000 soldiers (some sources mention up to 600,000 after including his German and Italian allies — hence the name La Grande Armée). But he undertook this foolish invasion without preparing for the brutal Russian winter.
The result: hundreds of thousands of his troops died from hunger and cold, leading to a humiliating retreat that ended his military legend. Within three years, France had lost everything it had gained in twenty decades, and the Napoleonic Empire collapsed.
3. Hitler’s Fatal Mistake:
Hitler committed a blunder that changed the course of World War II against Germany. He squandered Germany’s rapid and vast early victories — including the famous Blitzkrieg — and shifted the country from offense and gains to defense and losses, triggering internal disintegration.
His mistake was attacking the Soviet Union in 1941 before finishing the war with Britain.
The result was the exhaustion of the German army and the fall of Berlin in 1945.
4. The Ottoman Example — The Three Pashas:
The clearest Islamic example of such foolishness and seductive allure of power is seen in the actions of the Three Pashas of the Ottoman Empire: Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha, and Jamal Pasha.
One of their military blunders was dragging the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of Germany — a decision made by Enver Pasha in 1914 without real preparedness. He believed Germany’s victory was guaranteed and that the empire would regain its prestige.
The result: a major catastrophe. The military infrastructure was destroyed, most Arab and Balkan territories were lost, and even Istanbul was occupied by Britain.
One of their reckless moves was the Battle of Sarikamish in 1914, where Enver Pasha led the Ottoman army in harsh winter conditions against Russia in the Caucasus without proper logistical preparation. This led to the deaths of over 60,000 Ottoman soldiers from cold alone — the worst winter defeat in Ottoman history.
After the defeats, the three Pashas fled the country in 1918. Talat was assassinated in Berlin, Enver in Tajikistan, and Jamal in Georgia in 1922.
5. Saddam Hussein’s Invasion of Kuwait (1990):
His act of foolishness was invading a wealthy, allied, and supportive Gulf state.
The result: an international coalition formed against him, Iraq was devastated, its army and elite forces were destroyed, and its regime collapsed easily a few years later.
What we are witnessing now from the Zionist right in the West, and the religious and nationalist right in the Israeli colony, is historical blindness and seductive allure of power in its clearest form. And perhaps we won’t have to wait long to see the same fate befall them as befell Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Enver Pasha, Saddam, and other fools who wore the cloak of power, brutality, and delusion.
Dr. Khalid Naṣr
Boston 16 June 2025