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Originally Posted by finnbow
The drawings of the borders by the French and British in 1919 without regard to ethnicity or religion is indeed a large part of the genesis of the problems in the Mideast. It ain't exactly an issue of blame, per se, but simply some historical perspective.
As was true with Jugoslavia where Slovenes, Croats and Serbs were lumped together in one country after WWI, a strongman was needed in Iraq (as well as Syria and Lebanon) to hold together hostile factions once the Ottoman empire collapsed. Remove the strongman and whaddya get?
Tahseen Bashir, the famous Egyptian diplomat under Nasser and Sadat, had it (mostly) right when said "Egypt is the only nation-state in the Arab world; the rest are just tribes with flags."
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Who removed Iraq's strongman?
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Last edited by nailer; 11-09-2014 at 06:53 PM.
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