WWI and the Middle East today

[Peter1469]

Here is a good article from (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/world-war-i-led-to-a-century-of-violence-in-the-middle-east-a-946052.html) Der Spiegel about how the problems in the Middle East today were caused by WWI, or rather the end of it [my words.]

As I have said many times before, what we are seeing in the Middle East is the unraveling of the Sykes-Picot Agreement (notwithstanding the second page of the article). It is certainly not a pro-democracy movement. And the US is the bad guy today, not because the US is guilty as Britain and France, but because the US is powerful while Britain and France are not.

[Mister D]

The Ottoman collapse was supposed to a real Arab Spring but the liberal western allies didn't deliver on their promises.

[Peter1469]

After Arabs helped the allies....

[Mister D]

After Arabs helped the allies....

Right. The British encouraged revolts.

Actually, that was also a German strategy in both world wars.

[Germanicus]

And the US is the bad guy today, not because the US is guilty as Britain and France, but because the US is powerful while Britain and France are not.

I strongly disagree with that.

[shaarona]

I strongly disagree with that.

Britain and France washed their hands of Israel after the Suez Crisis.

[Peter1469]

I strongly disagree with that.

Why? I am talking about the time period leading up to the end of WWI.

[Gerrard Winstanley]

The Ottoman collapse was supposed to a real Arab Spring but the liberal western allies didn't deliver on their promises.
Slicing the Middle East up into hodgepodge states with no former basis in history, geography or ethnoreligious politics directly resulted in the present situation. That they didn't see it coming beats me.

[Mister D]

Slicing the Middle East up into hodgepodge states with no former basis in history, geography or ethnoreligious politics directly resulted in the present situation. That they didn't see it coming beats me.

nationalism has been a destructive force.