Rethinking Wilson’s points

WASHINGTON, DC: As American policymakers ponder the future shape of the Middle East, they should perhaps recall that the United States was opposed to the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement, the famous “line in the sand” that is now said to be dissolving.

American’s opposition back then was based on its rejection of the secret diplomacy between Britain and France that produced the plan to divide the Ottoman Empire after World War I. The US opposed this neo-colonial carve-up of the region and called instead for the right to national self-determination.