Punch on: Open thread 28/06/2010

TheRealDave says:

03:21pm | 28/06/10

Not to mention half the trouble started with Lawrence and his band of Arab clowns were allowed to stir up Arab Nationalism and pretend they kicked out the Ottomans when in fact it was the Desert Army spearheaded by the Australian Light Horse who did all the hard work and sacrifice and got little to no credit.

A Dose of Reality says:

12:52am | 29/06/10

The Real Dave @ POST.

Yes the Australian Light Horse (Mounted Infantry) did a magnificent job.

However you are incorrect.

The “Desert Army” made its’ way up the coast from Egypt, it was exposed to and vulnerable to a flanking movement all the way.

It was the Arabs, who had been forming a nationalist (Arabic) cause for the previous 50 years or so, in the interests of their freedom from the Ottoman and given a promise (fight and we will help you be free),  who joined the battle and formed their own column inland, protecting the desert armys’ flank.  They did this with small arms, the British refused to provide cannon - probably as they were making their betrayal in the form of the Sykes-Picot Accord.

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the Arabs were denied the freedom they had fought so hard for - they were again occupied (by the British and the French).  The Arab cause disintegrated in the face of modern weaponry and the absence of supply.  The Arab leaders were dispersed to holdings and in the power vacuum the Saudi family roused the religious tribes south with a (Wahhabi) radical preacher and the extremist state of Saudi Arabia was founded, animosity created towards the “west” and resistance to the influx of europeans started in Palestine.