Pax Britania ended many years ago. Our shift is over.

IMO there are two states a country can be in: a self governed soverign state or a colony / dominion of some description tied to another state. Both have their plusses and minuses. The third is an area of land in chaos of course.

Iraq and afghansitan are pretty much in limbo land at the moment. Just this side of completely falling to pieces, still requiring masses of foreign help and yet continuing to pretend they are sovereign states.

This IMO is not a sustainable situation.

Who made Iraq? The West. OK our mistake. Let's correct it and make something the people on the ground want, which is likely to be three states.

Why is does this have to be our problem? I don't see saudi Arabia yearning to help its fellow Muslims. Iran is positively making things worse.

Whilst we are there the West can be blamed for everything. If we start to get out now then it can again become a middle eastern problem. All those rich countries can work it out.