Today is the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot agreement.
The what? Well, much as the Americans find it more convenient
to fight their wars on other people’s territory, so the French, English and
Germans fought much of the First World War in the Middle East. When the Germans
and their allies were defeated and driven out of the area, the French and
English agreed to carve up the area between them.
The leaders of the various Arab, Syrian etc. nations, such fierce
but honest, loyal and honourable people as Feisal of Iraq, having been promised
their independence, felt betrayed. (Gosh, really?) T.E. Lawrence felt himself
forced into the rôle of betrayer and freaked out completely.
Now of course the Middle East is ruled by America, with
France and England as its pawns or cat’s paws, but the whole ghastly mess stems
from Sykes-Picot.
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