From Winston Churchill, Colonial Secretary, to David Lloyd George, Prime Minister, September 1922:

“I am deeply concerned about Iraq. ….. I think we should now put definitely, not only to Feisal (the King) but to the Constituent Assembly, the position that unless they beg us to stay and to stay on our own terms in regard to efficient control, we shall actually evacuate before the close of the financial year.

“I would put this issue in the most brutal way, and if they are not prepared to urge us to stay and to co-operate in every manner I would actually clear out…At present we are paying £8 million a year for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano out of which we are in no circumstances to get anything worth having”.

What a pity the American and British governments didn’t have the scepticism and wariness of Churchill in 2003. I remember sending the Washington Post a letter (never published) pointing out that the British had found Iraq, their own creation, ungovernable, and that only the Ottomans had known how pull it off. But few value historical analogies. Today, there is a steady drumbeat from the usual suspects telling us to get more and more deeply involved in Syria and Iraq. For the sake of peace of mind we should have stayed out in 2003, and we should stay out now. “We are in no circumstances to get anything worth having.”