Iraq's going to shit

[Nemo]

Bit fucking heavy for this forum and at this time of the evening but this is a bit important.

For those not following, ISIS (an offshoot of Al-Quaeda that the main group cut ties with because they were too extreme) have captured several major Iraqi cities in the last few days, supposedly catching the Iraqi army (heavily funded by the West) completely by surprise.

We really, really fucked that one up, didn't we? Blair and Bush used Al-Quaeda an excuse, and they might have turned the place into the Islamist republic that it wasn't before, and at the cost of £10bn+ and thousands of lives. Well done gents, you can be really proud of yourselves there.

Now, where's that Chilcott Enquiry report got to?

[4D]

The world won't change, someone always wants something different and they now have the ability to do it. There has always been conflict and unfortunately there always will be. We can get angry about it but it won't change anything.

[Oaksey Moonraker]

Sir William Patey on Newsnight now!

[Nemo]

Sir William Patey on Newsnight now!

Ah good, I was worried there wasn't a Swindon link on this story.

Presumably Kasim is on next?

[Oaksey Moonraker]

What's Paolo doing, send him in as a peacemaker...... You are all my warriors not Chihuahuas

[Hammer]

What's Paolo doing, send him in as a peacemaker...... You are all my warriors not Chihuahuas

Or even Shia waah waahs.

[Pete]

Same thing will happen in Afghanistan after they are left on their own. Probably a lot quicker too.

[ronnie21]

And just think about it, Cameron wanted us to go into Syria but met too much opposition to his big idea!!

[pauld]

And just think about it, Cameron wanted us to go into Syria but met too much opposition to his big idea!!

Hmm, in fairness (and I'm not saying we should have got involved in Syria, not by a long chalk) but the West's failure to intervene on the side of the "moderate" (these things are all relative) rebels in Syria is one of the things that tipped the balance to the extremists on the anti-government side. Without that, ISIS may have just stayed as one of many extreme terrorist factions in Iraq instead of being on the brink of establishing a pan-national mini-caliphate.

We have, as everyone else has rightly opined, made a right fucking mess of our involvement in both Iraq (and as a result) Afghanistan. What a terrible terrible waste of the lives of the civilians needlessly killed in both countries, and our own soldiers deployed on someone else's ego trip.

[OrangeTransits]

All we really did by intervening was stop them from killing themselves quicker than they would have done had we not got involved in the first place.

We are out now and normal service is resumed...

[pauld]

All we really did by intervening was stop them from killing themselves quicker than they would have done had we not got involved in the first place.

We didn't even manage that - nearly 1/2 million civilians dead up to 2011 and still rising. Saddam was a brutal butcher but that's on a scale he couldn't even have dreamed of

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24547256