HOW THE ARAB WORLD CAME APART

[elleng]

'This is a story unlike any we have previously published. It is much longer than the typical New York Times Magazine feature story; in print, it occupies an entire issue. The product of some 18 months of reporting, it tells the story of the catastrophe that has fractured the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq 13 years ago, leading to the rise of ISIS and the global refugee crisis. The geography of this catastrophe is broad and its causes are many, but its consequences — war and uncertainty throughout the world — are familiar to us all. Scott Anderson’s story gives the reader a visceral sense of how it all unfolded, through the eyes of six characters in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. Accompanying Anderson’s text are 10 portfolios by the photographer Paolo Pellegrin, drawn from his extensive travels across the region over the last 14 years, as well as a landmark virtual-reality experience that embeds the viewer with the Iraqi fighting forces during the battle to retake Falluja.

It is unprecedented for us to focus so much energy and attention on a single story, and to ask our readers to do the same. We would not do so were we not convinced that what follows is one of the most clear-eyed, powerful and human explanations of what has gone wrong in this region that you will ever read.'

– JAKE SILVERSTEIN, EDITOR IN CHIEF

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/11/magazine/isis-middle-east-arab-spring-fractured-lands.html?

[guillaumeb]

1. And the Sykes-Picot Agreement is the 20th century foundation.

Arbitrary lines drawn to reinforce Western colonial needs.

[Nitram]

10. Same story in Africa.

[guillaumeb]

12. True. And the affected people are blamed for the problems caused

by the colonialists.

[Xipe Totec]

2. If Iraq was a live grenade, Saddam was the pin holding it together and GWB the idiot who pulled it.

Who said that?

Oh, I think it was me!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025100231#post1

[hibbing]

3. Never, ever forget

I like your description. He was not a good man, but did the citizens have access to electricity, potable water, education and other things while he was in power? Let alone did they have to be worried about being blown up by a car bomb?

With each passing year, the enormity of the error of this war of choice grows, and with it my seething rage against that whole criminal administration.


Peace

[Igel]

6. Did the citizens have acess to electricity, potable water, education, and other things?

The answer to that is, "Not nearly as much as in the early '80s."

Education was in the toilet by 2003. The # of kids not in school had increased a lot. Girls especially suffered.

Electricity was a problem. Yes, it took years to reach the level of electrification that existed under Saddam in early 2003. But most people didn't care about that, and when electricity output reached pre-Iraq War levels focus just shifted to how incredibly sucky the amount of electricity available was; they simply dropped the pre-war comparison line. By 2003, the electrical grid was in serious trouble and had decayed.

The water system was in better shape. But not by much. In many cases water was provided but not properly purified. The business with tubing and things like chlorine importation would have made things better, but Saddam refused to kowtow to Western authorities and use the money allocatable for such things. It would have meant a loss of honor (or "dignity&quot to ask permission to import such. Instead, his attempts to get them in violation of sanctions led to distrust and suspicion that the dual-use items weren't intended for such appropriate uses.

Much of this was after 1984 and the Iraq-Iran war. Some problems were made worse after the First Gulf War in '91. Sanctions exacerbated the situation, and Saddam's unwillingness to abide by the sanctions only made things worse.

[hibbing]

7. Let me ask you this, are the average citizens better off today than they were before the war?

[Bill USA]

5. he was too stupid to listen to the CIA's (as his dad did) warning that chaos would be the result of

removing Saddam. But, since it was really Cheney calling the shots, we got the war to free Iraqi Oil and chaos in the Middle East.

[BlueMTexpat]

9. Great analogy! Thanks! eom

[JI7]

4. the Arab world has been around far longer than that

[Nitram]

11. True.

But the Arab World has not consisted of what we would consider countries for very long at all.

[Cal33]

13. The Arab world invented algebra, which is the first step in higher mathematics, (on which all

later higher math was founded). Also, there is no Southern European nation that has not
been under Arab occupation some time or other. The southern half of France was under
their occupation for some 30 years - around the time of Charlemagne. From the 8th to
the 15th Centuries, the Arab world was ahead of Europe in science and political power.

It seems that many different peoples have had a chance at being Number One at
various times in history. And the Number Ones all have used their power to subdue
their weaker neighbors. Human beings haven't changed much since. We are still doing it
today! Our basic instincts have just stayed that way -- they have simply remained base.

[elleng]

16. You've got it right, I'm afraid, Cal33,

many different peoples have had a chance at being Number One at
various times in history. And the Number Ones all have used their power to subdue
their weaker neighbors. Human beings haven't changed much since. We are still doing it
today! Our basic instincts have just stayed that way -- they have simply remained base.

[BlueMTexpat]

8. Thanks for posting this excellent

article. But it really only focuses on the fracturing of the Arab World since Bush II's illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The modern tragedy actually began much earlier, in 1916, with the Sykes-Picot Agreement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement

The Sykes–Picot Agreement, officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret agreement between the United Kingdom and France, to which the Russian Empire assented. The agreement defined their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in Southwestern Asia. The agreement was based on the premise that the Triple Entente would succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The negotiations leading to the agreement occurred between November 1915 and March 1916 and it was signed 16 May 1916. The deal was exposed to the public in Izvestia and Pravda on 23 November 1917 and in the British Guardian on November 26, 1917.

The agreement is still mentioned when considering the region and its present-day conflicts.

The agreement allocated to the UK control of areas roughly comprising the coastal strip between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan, Jordan, southern Iraq, and an additional small area that included the ports of Haifa and Acre, to allow access to the Mediterranean. France got control of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Russia was to get Istanbul, the Turkish Straits and Armenia. The controlling powers were left free to determine state boundaries within their areas. Further negotiation was expected to determine international administration pending consultations with Russia and other powers, including Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca.

Given Ottoman defeat in 1918 and the subsequent partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, the agreement effectively divided the Ottoman's Arab provinces outside the Arabian peninsula into areas of future British and French control and influence. An international administration was proposed for Palestine. The British gained control of the territory in 1920 and ruled it as Mandatory Palestine from 1923 until 1948. They also ruled Mandatory Iraq from 1920 until 1932, while the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon lasted from 1923 to 1946. The terms were negotiated by British diplomat Mark Sykes and a French counterpart, François Georges-Picot. The Tsarist government was a minor party to the Sykes–Picot agreement, and when, following the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks published the agreement on 23 November 1917, "the British were embarrassed, the Arabs dismayed and the Turks delighted."

Prior to Sykes-Picot, most of the Arab World was part of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious Ottoman Empire/Caliphate. http://lostislamichistory.com/how-the-british-divided-up-the-arab-world/

The development of the modern nation states throughout the Arab world is a fascinating and heartbreaking process. 100 years ago, most Arabs were part of the Ottoman Empire/Caliphate, a large multi-ethnic state based in Istanbul. Today, a political map of the Arab world looks like a very complex jigsaw puzzle. A complex and intricate course of events in the 1910s brought about the end of the Ottomans and the rise of these new nations with borders running across the Middle East, diving Muslims from each other. While there are many different factors leading to this, the role that the British played in this was far greater than any other player in the region. Three separate agreements made conflicting promises that the British had to stand by. The result was a political mess that divided up a large part of the Muslim world.

While we Americans have certainly done our best to destabilize the Arab World in the ME, especially since 1948, with Bush II's actions being the most calamitous, I blame the British most of all. It was through the efforts of T.E. Lawrence and others - playing on nationalist sympathies - that the Arabs revolted against their Ottoman overlords, which was the worst thing for lasting ME peace that could have happened. Thus, IMO, the Brits were the absolute worst. The French weren't far behind. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-25299553

Had there not been a Russian Revolution and a certain Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, things would likely have gotten a LOT worse a lot sooner. As it is, the Arab Revolt has left a lasting residue of anger among Turks even today against their Arab neighbors, which I noticed firsthand during my visit to Turkey earlier this year. At first, I was surprised. Since then, I've done a lot of reading and have more understanding of why that is the case.

[Blue_Tires]

14. Congrats on hitting 70,000 posts (holy damn!)

[elleng]

15. 'Holy damn is right,

I didn't even notice! THANKS, Blue_Tires!!!

[Joisey Boy]

17. The line that Explains All

"since the invasion of Iraq 13 years ago"