”Persians and Ottomans were the natural balancers of the Middle East up until 1919. Why not have that back 100 years later?”
There are people meant to rule and people who need to be ruled. Turks and Persians are the natural rulers of Arabs and displacing them from this role has been a disaster.
Not quite as bad as turning Germans into pacifists. But bad nonetheless.
1908 (May 26):
Masjid Sulaiman field (Masjid Sulaiman-1 well), southwest Zagros basin, Iran (Persia) by the Concessions Syndicate Ltd. (owned by Englishmen William Knox D’Arcy and Lord Stathcona, and the Scottish Burma Oil), forerunner of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later British Petroleum). Reservoir: Asmari limestone (Oligocene-Early Miocene), 354 m deep; oil 39.4° API gravity.