Eleven years after a controversial US-UK-led military invasion, Iraq as a country looks to be on the brink of breaking up. Terror group ISIS crushed the western-trained security forces like a knife through butter, taking control of cities in many parts of the country.
Many of the critics who opposed the war in Iraq had predicted a long time that a worse- case scenario such as this would happen, are now saying to both former US President George W Bush, and Prime Minister Tony Blair: “We told you so“, with a heavy heart.
It’s such a scandal that Blair continues to believe that it’s Muslim fundamentalism, as opposed to his (and Bush’s) desire to invade at the time, that has led to the current crisis. Some news commentators who backed Blair in the beginning are now hypocritically slating him.
In the mean time, current US President Barack Obama is in two minds over whether to work alongside former enemy Iran to take on the insurgents. The UK is expected to follow the US lead. In the light of all this, why should the West feel the need to continue intervening in the Middle East? Throughout history, doing such has led to the ongoing social, political and religious problems which exist to this very day. Sometimes it’s best to stay out of the way and allow the people of Iraq to determine their own future.
Back in the UK, some commentators are demanding that Labour’s current leader Ed Miliband make a statement apologising for the situation in Iraq and to distance himself from Blair as much as possible. As if he has enough problems on his plate.