General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: And Creeeeeeep: White House beginning to consider conflicts in Syria and Iraq as single challenge [View all]jeff47
(26,549 posts)At the end of WWI, the British and French carved up the Middle East. They had conquered the Ottoman Empire after it sided with the Germans.
The UK created Iraq by drawing the lines where they felt like drawing the lines. They utterly ignored the local population, and their ethnic and religious conflicts. The French took Syria, doing a similar stupidity.
As a result, the borders in the middle east are not where they should be. That's why ISIS put Iraq and Syria in its name. There is a clump of Sunnis in Western Iraq, 1/2 of Syria, and chunks of Jordan who should be their own country. In the North of Iraq and Southeast of Turkey is a clump of Kurds who should be their own country. The Shiites in Iraq should be part of Iran, or a country aligned with Iran.
That is why there is a massive sectarian conflict. We can't solve the conflict by insisting we continue the UK's mistake of border placement. At this point, we need to try and make the break-up of Iraq as smooth as possible. However, that is greatly complicated by Turkey, Syria and Jordan not wanting to give up territory, and thus not wanting a smooth break-up of Iraq.