The April 23, 2011 article in the Wall Street Journal, “As Arab Spring Turns Violent, Democracy Advocates Face Big Challenges”, is reminiscent of how Churchill, T.E. Lawrence, and the “Forty Thieves” met in Cairo in March of 1921 to draw up the boundaries of Iraq and Transjordan. This was in the wake of England’s Balfour Declaration in 1919 expressing sympathy for the Zionist Movement.
This Cairo meeting didn’t create real countries. It merely drew lines on a map. Ever since the Middle East, released from the sway of the Ottoman Turks after World War I, has been a hotbed of dissension. Arabs felt betrayed by Churchill, betrayed by England, later betrayed by America who was always doomed to inherit whatever international mess the British Empire created.
Instead the Mufti of Jerusalem and other Arab zealot and patriots turned to the Germans. They supported the Nazis and HitlerCol during World War II. It is interesting how even now Germany does not join England and France in fighting Colonel Gadhafi.
Winston Churchill