Which is fine. But both the Arab League and the African Union refuse to even discuss the idea of changing borders short of violence to correct those European mistakes in cartography divorced from tribe, ethnicity, and religion. What price was paid just to get South Sudan? And who in their right mind wants to defend the integrity of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)?
In theory, I'm fine with redrawing their maps.
I opposed it in Iraq because at the time it would have provided Sunni Arab terrorists with a victory by giving them Anbar as a sanctuary. After our battlefield victory, I'm more open to peaceful break up in Iraq, if Iraqis want that.
I've supported it in Syria because it would provide a clear defeat for Assad yet prevent the escape of Assad's chemical arsenal in a more chaotic total defeat--if the latter problem is too great for us to solve otherwise.
I couldn't care less if there is Yemen or North Yemen and South Yemen. You guys decide.
When revolt against Khaddafi spread, I fully expected Libya to divide into east and west (with each reaching out to control what was south of them), with Khaddafi left in the west and the rebels holding the east, roughly lining up with the old pre-Libya regions.
What I didn't expect was that we'd turn a no-fly zone into becoming the rebel air force to defeat Khaddafi completely. Let me tell you, the Russians were caught by surprise by that bait and switch.
So if a peace plan divides Syria up, so what? I'm fine as long as we continue to work against Assad in his rump satrap after chemical weapons are secured.
I did not know this (or forgot it, just as likely):
Applying the principles of self-determination to the Middle East has been contemplated, but never fully realized. President Wilson’s Fourteen Points included a specific reference to self-rule for the Ottoman Empire’s non-Turkish minorities. It was never implemented. After expelling the British-installed Hashemite ruler of Damascus in 1920, France created five separate Levantine states based on the old Ottoman vilayets (“provinces”): Greater Lebanon, an Alawite mountain state, a Druze mountain state, the State of Aleppo, and the State of Damascus. Concerned that a rising Germany was making inroads into its colonies, however, France acquiesced to a unified Syria in 1936, ending the short-lived experiment.
Yeah, seeking a strongman to control the various constituencies instead of self-determination worked swell. To be fair, I guess it worked well enough in the short run.
Funny enough, the Baath parties of Syria and Iraq have been little more than Nazi Party clones masked in Arab nationalism.
Even funnier, the European Union is trying to become a new Ottoman empire to control their own feared nationalities.
