History's Most Despicable Example of Doubledealing: The Allies' Subversion of Middle Eastern Self-Determination Following World War I

The French and British, on November 7, 1918, officially guaranteed the independence of Lebanon and all Ottoman possessions in the Anglo-French Declaration, which states that:

The goal envisaged by France and Great Britain in prosecuting in the East the War let loose by German ambition is the complete and final liberation of the peoples who have for so long been oppressed by the Turks, and the setting up of national governments and administrations deriving their authority from the free exercise of the initiative and choice of the indigenous populations.

In pursuit of those intentions, France and Great Britain agree to further and assist in the establishment of indigenous Governments and administrations in Syria and Mesopotamia which have already been liberated by the Allies, as well as in those territories which they are engaged in securing and recognising these as soon as they are actually established.

Far from wishing to impose on the populations of those regions any particular institutions they are only concerned to ensure by their support and by adequate assistance the regular working of Governments and administrations freely chosen by the populations themselves; to secure impartial and equal justice for all; to facilitate the economic development of the country by promoting and encouraging local initiative; to foster the spread of education; and to put an end to the dissensions which Turkish policy has for so long exploited. Such is the task which the two Allied Powers wish to undertake in the liberated territories.

The ideals expressed in the declaration never came to pass. Instead, it seems, the Middle East had already been divided in a series of back room negotiations and an exchange of what seems solemn assurances. Beginning in 1915, British High Commissioner of Egypt Sir Henry McMahon began correspondence with Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif, or steward, of the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina. In that correspondence, McMahon supported Hussein's goal of a single Arab state, stretching from Yemen to Syria, but not the "districts lying to the west of Damascus" because those regions could not be said to be "purely Arab." Indeed, Hussein rallied the Arab world against the Ottomans in the Arab Revolt that resulted in the seizure of Damsacus in 1918, which succeeded largely due to the ingenuity and determination of the indigenous Arab forces and their British counterpart, the immortalized T.E Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia.") Unbeknownest to Lawrence, by 1916 the French and British had already secretly agreed to divide control of the Middle East amongst themselves in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, while Britain officially agreed to support the establishment of a Jewish states in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration. Oddly, the Germans (of imperial German ilk, not Nazis) had at the same time been negotiating with American Jews on demands for Palestinian statehood, as Germans were until late as 1917 as likely as ally of the U.S. as were France or England.

Following the Arab Revolt and the end of World War I, the state of Palestine was placed under British control and Hussein bin Ali's son, Faisal, was installed as the Muslim King of Syria. However, his kingdom was short-lived. Pursuant to the Treaty of Versailles, the Sanremo Conference and the League of Nations' mandates, the regions of Iraq and Syria (which includes modern-day Lebanon) was given a Class A mandate, which purported to guarantee the provisional recognition of "their existence... subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance... until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration." Greater Syria acknowledged Faisal as King, but the French did not and quickly moved to partition Lebanon as a Christian enclave in the new Middle East. Faisal objected to the annexation of Lebanon and the rejected the League of Nations' mandate that gave France administrative control over Syria. In 1920 at the Battle of Maysalun, the French routed the hastily composed Syrian army, deposed Faisal's regime and capped their victory with the French general kicking the tombstone of the great Muslim commander Saladin, uttering "we're back."

After more than two decades of French rule, Lebanon proclaimed its independence on November 22, 1943, yet French troops did not withdraw until 1946. In 1947, the League of Nations, acting seemingly in accordance with the promises made in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, and as argued by Winston Churchill, partitioned the previously sovereign nation Palestine into Arab and Israeli sections. The Arab countries refused to recognize this partition and the state of Israel. The disagreement culminated quickly into the 1948 Arab-Israeli War ensued, with armies from Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Jordan invading British-supported Israel. The Lebanese contingent of the invasion, a mere 1,000 soldiers, was repulsed upon entering Galilee and forced to sing an armistice in March of 1949. Numerous Palestinian refugees (estimated to be 100,000 or more) fled to Lebanon. In his diary, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Guiron, remarked that:

The weak link in the Arab coalition is Lebanon. Muslim rule is artificial and easy to undermine. A Christian state should be established whose southern border would be the Litani (which would cede much of present day southern Lebanon to Israel).

Despite some internal turmoil, the country of Lebanon actually thrived during the 1950s and 60s, becoming an increasingly-important center of commerce and tourism. However, conflict again engulfed the region in the late 1950s and continuing into the 1960s, beginning with the globally-important Suez Crisis of 1956 and peaking with the the Six Days War of 1967, in which the Israelis occupied the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.

Following the embarrassing defeat of the Six Days War, a coalition of Palestinians and disaffected Arabs changed tactics, employing terrorist tactics and indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli soil from their base in Jordan and Lebanon. The newly formed Palestinian Organization even formalized an agreement with Lebanon, brokered by Egypt, to attack Israeli soil from Lebanon. Succumbing to international diplomatic pressure in 1970, King Hussein of Jordan, aided by Israeli air strikes, evicted the Palestinians from Jordan, pushing them into Southern Lebanon. "Starting in 1968, Palestinian militants of various affiliations began to use southern Lebanon as a launching pad for attacks on Israel. Two of these attacks led to a watershed event in Lebanon's inchoate civil war. In July 1968, a faction of George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP) hijacked an Israeli El Al civilian plane en route to Algiers; in December, Habash himself oversaw an attack on an El Al plane in Athens, resulting in two deaths. Later that month, Israeli agents flew into Beirut's international airport and demolished 13 civilian airliners belonging to various Arab carriers. Israel defended its actions by informing the Lebanese government that it was responsible for encouraging the PFLP. The retaliation, which was intended to encourage a Lebanese government crackdown on Palestinian militants, instead polarized Lebanese society on the Palestinian question, deepening the divide between pro- and anti-Palestinian factions, with the Muslims leading the former grouping and Maronites primarily constituting the latter."

This sectarian tension escalated into civil war in 1975, with the minority Maronite Christians facing off against indigenous Arab, Syrian and PLO elements. In June of 1982, the Israelis invaded southern Lebanon under guise of ridding the region of the PLO. A UN force, including American units, was deployed to end the hostilities. However, following numerous attacks against the UN force and the continued occupation of southern Lebanon by Israel, the US removed its troops from the region in 1984.

A Brief, Contextual History of Kurdistan

Historically, Kurdistan, situated between the ancient empires of Babylonia and Persia, has consistently been a flash point for warring regional powers. It was subjugated by the Roman general Pompey in 60 BCE and remained a Roman province/protectorate until 384 CE. Following the collapse of Roman influence, Kurdistan was ruled over by the Sassanid Empire until its defeat at the hands of the successors of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, father of Islam and first Caliph (which translate to English as "commander of the faithful.")

Interestingly, the historical fact that delineates Sunni from Shi'a Muslim stems from their divergent beliefs as to the rightful successor to Muhammad and the Caliphate. Sunni Muslims believe that the second, and thus rightful, Caliph was Abu Bakr a contemporary and disciple of Muhammad. Following Muhammad's death in 632 CE, Abu Bakr succeeded him as Caliph. Shi'a Muslims believe that Abu Bakr usurped the Caliph position from Mohammed's rightful successor, his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib, who eventually ruled as the Fifth Caliph until his assassination in 661 CE, allegedly at the hand of one of his former follower's who had left Ali after his negotiation with Muawiyah, the leader of a rival faction.

Following Ali's death, Muawiyah, descended from the same lineage as Muhammad and Ali, seized power and formed the Umayyad dynasty. The Umayyad Caliphate ruled over Kurdistan and, at its height, ruled lands stretching from Spain and North Africa in the West to Afghanistan to the East. In 750 CE, the Umayyad Caliphate was deposed by the Abbasid dynasty, which moved the capital of the Caliphate from Damascus to Baghdad.

The Abbasid Caliphate prospered until the time of the First Crusade launched in 1095. In 1099, the Crusaders laid siege to and eventually took the city of Jerusalem, site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to have been built upon the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. The Christian forces held Jerusalem and established the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, which endured for less than one hundred years. In 1187 , Jerusalem was beseiged and taken (as depicted in the recent film Kingdom of Heaven) by the army of Saladin, a man of Kursish descent and founder of the Ayyubid Caliphate, successor to Abbasid dynasty.

The Ayyubids were weakened by the death of Saladin in 1193 and later lost much of their power over Kurdistan to Mongol invaders, who sacked Baghdad in 1258. Following the fall of the Ayyubids, Kurdistan eventually came under the power of the Safavid dynasty (a Shi'a empire, centered in modern Iran, dating from the 13th century). However, Kurdistan would soon be torn apart again, this time by the Ottomans, a Sunni Muslim dynasty born in Turkey around 1300 CE. The Ottomans, armed with muskets and artillery, easily defeated the horse-mounted, sword-bearing cavalry of Safavids at the Battle of Chaldira in 1514, thus pushing the Safvids eastward to the modern-day border of Turkey and Iran. The defeat had remarkable effects on the Safavids dynasty (and, consequently, modern-day Iran) as they systematically coerced the inhabitants of their lands to convert to Shi'a Islam.

The Ottomans, on the other hand, greatly expanded their power over the next three hundred years, at one time controlling territory that included portions of Northern Africa, Southeast Europe and the majority of the Middle East (map of territory is here). The Ottoman Empire, also known (at least currently) as the Last Caliphate, survived until its defeat and by the Allies in World War I. The Allies subsequently partitioned the lands of the Ottoman Empire, setting many of the the borders of modern Middle East and, in doing so, arguably engendered much of the chaos and distrust that exists there today.

Global Pollution Update

"Sometime next year, China could surpass the United States in greenhouse gas emissions, but the average person in China still consumes less than one-fifth the energy the average American does. For China to achieve the same living standard as the United States, it would have to triple its use of coal, creating an enormous increase in both conventional pollutants and greenhouse gases. And make no mistake about it, China is angling to catch up. In fact, to keep up with this voracious demand for energy, a new conventional coal-fired power plant comes on-line in China every week."

"China is not alone. The United States has 100 to 160 conventional coal-fired plants on the drawing boards, all with life spans of about 40 years, and none equipped to capture and sequester CO2. Indeed, as oil and gas have become increasingly expensive, countries rich in coal have found themselves relying on it ever more. The global consequences of continuing this trend without first adopting new "clean coal" technologies will be dire."

Source: Orville Schell, "Clearing the Air with China," Washington Post, 4/15/07 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/
AR2007041302065.html)