t.e. lawrence became a hero in the arab world when he led nomadic bedouin tribes in battle against turkish rule. peter o'toole immortalized him in the epic movie, "lawrence of arabia." >> come on, men! >> what, in your opinion, do these people hope to gain from this war? >> they hope to gain their freedom. >> they hope to gain their freedom. there's one born every minute. >> they're going to get it, mr. bentley. i'm going to give it to them. >> at war's end, lawrence's vision of arab independence was shattered when the versailles peace conference confirmed the carving of iraq, syria, lebanon and palestine into british and french spheres of influence. arbitrary boundaries drawn in the sand to satisfy the appetites of empire. a hopeful lawrence drew his own "peace map" of the region, one that paid closer heed to tribal allegiances and rivalries. the map could have saved the world a lot of time, trouble, and treasure, one historian said, providing the region "with a far better starting point than the crude imperial carve up." but colonial power prevailed, and lawrence wrote to a british major