Posted on 06/28/2014 7:33:29 AM PDT by re_tail20
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) publishes a weekly webzine, The Islamic State Report. The latest issue is headlined “Smashing the Borders of the Tawaghit.” (“Tawaghit” are non-Muslim creations.) ISIS, citing the Sykes-Picot Treaty of 1916 between the British and French, boasts that it is destroying the “partitioning of Muslim lands by crusader powers.” That may seem like a quixotic task for a relatively small band of irregulars, but in trying to redraw the map of Iraq and Syria, ISIS has hit upon a weak link in the chain holding the nations of the Middle East together.
It is easy to blame what is going on in Iraq or Syria on dictators and terrorists, but these various bad actors are bit players in a drama that goes back at least to World War I. What is happening is that the arrangements that the British and French created during and after World War I—which established the very existence of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan, and later contributed to the creation of Israel—are unraveling. Some of these states will survive in their present form, but others will not. The United States may, perhaps, be able to slow or moderate the process, but it won’t be able to stop it.
If you look at a map of the Middle East in 1917, you won’t find Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, or Palestine. Since the sixteenth century, that area was part of the Ottoman Empire and was divided into districts that didn’t match past or future states. The British and French created the future states—not in order to ease their inhabitants’ transition to self-rule, as they were supposed to do under the mandate of the League of Nations,...
(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...
Subtitle:
And there’s very little the U.S. can do to stop it
It just took 100 years to do it ...
Lawrence of Arabia may have been a British hero but he was just a political tool. The Brits/Frogs wanted the energy for their fleet and didn’t care what got screwed up because of it.
The Arabs on the other hand were tribal then and they are tribal now.
This is exactly correct. The whole area will revert to religious and tribal subdivisions that precede Sykes-Picot This will ease tensions but these countries will not be a factor except locally
Splitting up Arabia and Persia back then was pure genius.
The left is so predictable. But because he's writing in the NR, Judis can't use the usual dailykos memes and blame Dick Cheney.
So he's going to blame a French colonial administrator. That shows everyone how sophisticated and Ivy League he is.
” ISIS won’t get its Caliphate, but the United States won’t get its United States of Arabia either.”
This is the first time I learned we even wanted a “United States of Arabia”. Still, the first one is fine with me.
thanks mojito, and /bingo.
Iran, aka Persia (neutral during WWI) wasn’t a part of the Ottoman Empire, so there was no splitting up to be done.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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