History forgotten

The Foreign Affairs minister Alexander Downer, during comments on the capture of Saddam Hussein, off-handedly commented that Iraq "hadn't been a politically stable country since the 1920s" (not necessarily his exact words).

I don't dispute the fact of the matter, but has he not forgotten a key reason for instability in the region of the whole 20th century? That reason is the simple fact that the borders were drawn up in the aftermath of WW1, by the Western European powers, with their own(western) interests primarily in mind, not the interests of the inhabitants. The conflicts since have, in my view, been a result of trying to cope with these political decisons imposed on them.

These are not the only reasons of course - there is never a "simple" reason for anything involving the way nations interact with each other. I only want to point out to Downer that Western Europe, in particular the UK, USA, France, Germany, Russia and the USA have had a major part to play in the creation of the monsters they are now dealing with.