Gertrude Bell

http://theava.com/04/0526-gertrude-bell.html
Excerpt:
 May 26, 2004 
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Gertrude Bell and the Birth of Iraq
by Chris Calder
America has its Founding Fathers; the modern nation of Iraq has a peculiar kind of Founding Mother.
Or maybe she was a national nanny. For Iraq's Founding ... Someone ... was not Iraqi, but a red-haired, Oxford-educated mountaineer, an honored poet and opponent to suffragettes, an Arabist and proud British imperialist named Gertrude Bell.
Gertrude Bell designed — literally drew onto the map — the country that America is now trying to (perfectly Orwellian term) "rebuild." She did so via her mastery of Arabic, Persian and Turkish; her deep knowledge of the Arab tribes and friendships with their sheiks; through the immense influence she carried with the leadership of the British Empire.