Earnings

[VNA]

VNA you're right to a degree about the middle East but what do you propose, that we have no Armed Forces?
their 1st job is to go to war, no more no less. HMG use them to break strikes and a manner of all sorts these days but like you say.....you take orders or get out

I am not aware of the army being used to break strikes.  I don't think it's been tried since the Glasgow rent strikes almost 100 years ago (am I about to be corrected? :\ ).

Where do you start with our attitude towards the Middle East?  Well over 100 years of imperial abuse and wholesale theft of assets.  In recent years the unjustified and disastrous invasion of Afghanistan which after over ten years of occupation has achieved absolutely foc all.  And this in a country that was sacrificed by the USA with help from the UK to give the USSR it's Vietnam.

Regime change in Iraq.  The intelligence services knew there was no WMD, and frankly the claim that there was WMD left anybody with half a clue wondering what the heck the USA and UK had just spend ten years bombing.
We knew it had all already been destroyed.  Not to mention you might wonder who sold it to them in the first place and at times encouraged them to use it.  (that would be us again!)

So, yes, it was purely regime change.  Bush was getting irritated that their puppet Saddam was at times becoming difficult.  And of course at that time there were no terrorists in Iraq.  Regime change and an economic fantasy that we would buy their cheap oil and they would use the money to get us to rebuild and run Iraq. 

Then fast forward a bit.  Syria.  Putin backed Assad warning us of the dangers of Mujahedeen Extremists, so Russia armed Assad, we armed the Mujahedeen and the civilians paid the price, as of course they do in all wars. 

You know how about, after completely foccing up the whole region for well over 100 years, we perhaps face up to our immoral illegal and racist foreign policies and maybe try and draw up some policies that might nip ISIS in the bud and promote other policies that might just improve the lives of people in the region.

But then of course we are stuck in a economic military complex, we are addicted to selling arms to rouge states that promote war and extreme ideology  across the Middle East.