The US has little credibility left: Syria won't change that

Guardian UK - 'I created Transjordan," Winston Churchill once boasted, "with a stroke of a pen one Sunday afternoon in Cairo." Take a look at what remains of Jordan 90 years later and you can see how. Straight borders drawn with a ruler carve indifferent frontiers through a complex region with the kind of callous colonial hubris that displayed scant regard for linguistic, ethnic or religious affiliation.

Much of the contemporary turmoil in the Middle East owes its origins to foreign powers drawing lines in the sand that were both arbitrary and consequential and guided more by their imperial standing than the interests of the region.  Read more.