When was the last time your country was invaded by a foreign army?

[Hawk_eye]

Alexander the Great!

[ChrisF202]

See Donnie's and Kipruss's posts, Mexican military and police forces show up miles inside the US several times a year, sometimes they shoot at us and once they kidnapped an American family, once we found a Mexican Army major with papers saying the president of Mexico authorized them to invade the US and support drug /immigrant runners; but the last full scale invasion of the US was in the War of 1812, though I do belive the Japanese invaded and captured one of the Alutian Islands in WW2.

[Bill]

"At the end of the war Stilwell persuaded Chiang to retrain and rearm his 30 divisions and stop relying on the 90 hellcats that the USAAF contributed"

The USAAF was never an operator of the Grumman F6F Hellcat.
The AVG flew Curtiss P40 Warhawks.

[porsteamboy]

The envasion of the southern states by the Union army, after the secession of the southern states from the Union. If civil war counts!

[dave angel]

the french turned up on the west welsh coast during the napolionic wars, but a load of women in national dress beat them off.

the dutch attacked chatham dockyard about the same time (donkeys years ago)

and i think man irish armoured car came over the border in the early seventies.

apart from that germans in the dark ages, vikings after that and then the normans.

it could be worse, we could be belgium.

[lemontree]

Alexander the Great!

Come on Hawk eye. Grant the devil his due, you can name the last post independence invader. There would be no flame wars on this one at least. :)

[Veni Vidi Vici]

1812 was the only REAL invasion :)

[Bill]

Actually miss, the Confederacy invaded the Union, and the Union subsequently invaded the Confederacy, some 50 years after the war of 1812. ;)

[Veni Vidi Vici]

Actually miss, the Confederacy invaded the Union, and the Union subsequently invaded the Confederacy, some 50 years after the war of 1812. ;)

Well actually the origional post was "from a foreign army"

[Bill]

"Well actually the origional post was "from a foreign army""

Once the Confederacy seceeded, what were they if not a foriegn army?

They had their own president, their own congress. They declared soveriegnty and were recognized by at least one major world power.

Is that not then a foriegn country?

[Ray]

The last time the US was attacked was by the fundoos.

That is why the US is currently at war.

India is still under attack.

These attacks may not be conventional, but attacks they are!

[Ray]

Alexander the Great!

Worth checking this:

mailto:[email protected]

Accepting history Accepting history



Dr M S Jillani

The writer is an ex-Chief of Technical Cooperation Division of the United Nations ESCAP, and a former secretary to the Federal Government

[email protected]

Even after fifty-seven years and breakthrough in various fields, we Pakistanis have not been able to take decisions on fundamentals. I was appalled to see a news item last week that a para-religious organisation had threatened the government of dire consequences were history of the Mauryas and Asoka (and probably other non-Muslim dynasties) were included in the syllabi of schools.

The contents and tenor of the report — and the resolve — indicate that there still exist misguided minds who besides keeping themselves ignorant, are inclined to spread their warped thinking among others.

Question is not that of including the reigns of Chandr Gupt Maurya or Asoka in the school syllabi, it is related to the basic issue of teaching young people about history of the land where their parents and forefathers lived and now dwell . Nobody can — or has the right to even try — to obliterate or contort history. It is a fact etched on the slate of time. Denying facts of history is like denying one’s parentage. Only a mind blinded by prejudice and complete ignorance of the value of truth and faithfulness with the past can think of excluding some of the most glorious periods of the past only because they were dominated by the non-Muslims. In case of the Mauryas, Islam still had not appeared on earth as a religion; how could the Mauryas adopt it?

To guide the proponents of granting recognition only to the Muslim period of history, reference should be made to the holy Qur’aan that describes the times before the advent of Islam, in various parts of the world, and the kings and queens and the good and evil persons of those eras. Other Islamic literature also gives detailed accounts of people and events of the pre-Islamic periods.

Situation in Arabia before enlightenment has to be mentioned if the value of Islamic teachings and the impact of the message and the personality of the holy Prophet (PBUH) is to be assessed and understood. Likewise, period before the arrival of Muslims in India also needs to be studied to present complete picture of the era.

We have been doing great disservice to students in our educational institutions. Lack of the knowledge of history before the arrival of Muhammad Bin Qasim in India has resulted in failure of establishing the rightful place of our archaeological sites and historical places in the minds of our younger generations. They would have gained a much better appreciation of the importance of Taxila, Moenjo Daro or Buddhist inscriptions and etchings strewn all over the country, had they been taught about rulers and the events related to these monuments. Such information could enhance the value of monuments that we make efforts to show to the world, by comparing them with relics from other ages. But that could happen only if someone is ready to open his or her minds to reason and objectivity.

Ethnic bias and parochial thinking, more or less, are prevalent all over the world. One comes across them in various situations. Even the international institutions and business houses are not free from nepotism originating from religious, lingual, racial and cultural compatibility. The British and the French have grouped their erstwhile colonies on quasi-political or cultural basis. The Hindu-Muslim tensions in the Indo-Pak Sub-continent are notorious for their persistence. However, biases in other countries do not affect history so strongly as it has happened in Pakistan over the years. Although, anti-Muslim episodes in India are not uncommon, yet, with the exception of sporadic statements by some extremist organisations, nobody has tried to disown Muslim rulers of yore or their achievements. In case of Pakistan, there has prevailed, generally, an atmosphere of disinterest and bias with regards to pre-Muslim rulers of this region. The common man was never told of the great qualities and contributions made by kings like Chandr Gupt, Samudur Gupt, Asoka and others.

The people who made syllabi at the school level, perhaps, never realised that much of what was created in our region was based on the beginnings made by dynasties ruling this area around the start of the first millennium. Not only that the achievements of Muslim rulers based many of their achievements on what reached them from the past, but part of the culture we have today is also a legacy of that era. Trying to build a strong nation without reference to the bedrock of history is futile. People belong where their roots are. Drawing inspiration, advice and assistance from sources other than one’s own origins is against the law of nature, unless either the givers or the takers give up their identity. The end of the empires established by conquerors from far-off lands is an example. Most of the earlier local people and culture assimilated invaders. Others could not keep their hold and left — like the British, Dutch and the French, etc, carrying only memories of their days of luxury, opulence and power.

Let us admit, sincerely or grudgingly, that we here, are committed to the business of economic and social development thus pulling our people out of the quagmire of poverty and sense of inferiority that come with deprivation and oppression. Equally important aim is to gain and maintain a place of prestige among nations of the world. These are no mean tasks. They need a sharp focus on objectives, unflinching sense of unity and sacrifice, and most of all, a clear vision of past and the future. Blacking out the past is the first crime in this respect. The people, especially the younger generation must be made aware of our legacy and the good and bad that has reached us from the past. And this land has a known history spanning millenniums. Denial of this rich and long past will deprive us of the knowledge of our strengths and the weaknesses obstructing our progress. It is lamentable that we do not study the wealth of knowledge that we have inherited. This makes us vulnerable to the onslaught of alien influences that do not suit our intellectual, spiritual and physical make-up. It places us at the losing end of the march towards.

Among the many crucial tasks that we have to undertake for the nation is the changing of attitudes and the removal of confusion created by confluence of various cultures and norms that the people of this country have been exposed to over the centuries. This confusion has been accentuated by fast winds of assertive culture fomented by revival of lust for power and control of resources that culminate in building of empires. This is no ordinary sweep. If someone has to protect their values and traditions, the foremost step would be to create within them the love for our past and pride in culture produced by millenniums of interaction between land and the people living on it.

One feels that this is the time to act, as it is already late. A revision of syllabi is a good beginning. Apprehensions that it will be loaded with alien thoughts should be unfounded. The insecurity created by global turmoil in thinking and conduct has spawned a sense of insecurity resulting in a more ardent desire to conserve our traditions. The syllabi being followed in our schools after independence were compiled in the backdrop of reaction to happenings in 1947 and a heightened passion for giving a religious injection to children. This fervour prompted many educators to ‘taint’ non-Muslim days of yore and glorify the Muslims. Almost six decades of our own rule have proven that we are not ready to appear and act that gloriously as some people would like us to.

While ‘descendants’ of those who have been kept out of our history books have proven themselves to be superior. There must be a secret somewhere. Let the young people have the opportunity to find it. We should add to their knowledge and kindle their curiosity rather than clipping their wings and keeping them in the dark! And, by the way, Islam is not that frail a faith that its followers will be stupefied by the study of pre-Islamic or non-Muslim eras of history

__________________

[The Chap]

If one gives credence to the tabloids UK, ongoing

[jon_j_rambo]

I'm invaded every 2-weeks by Uncle Sam, his taxes are too high!

[Jonathan Locke]

I'm invaded every 2-weeks by Uncle Sam, his taxes are too high!

i agree, my salary is already low enough