The traumatic experience of Britain’s participation in the 2003 Iraq war led the Government to have as little to do with the country as possible. By the spring of 2014, as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) prepared its great offensive that would capture a third of Iraq, the political section of the British embassy in Baghdad consisted of just three junior diplomats on short-term deployment. The British consulate in Basra, the city that had been the base for UK military operation between 2003 and 2007 and is the centre of Iraq’s oil industry, had been closed in 2011. Amazingly, Iraq was apparently a low priority for British intelligence at a moment when it was becoming obvious that much of the country was being taken over by the world’s most violent terrorist movement.

These facts all come from the well-informed report by the House of Commons Defence Committee published last week which should be read by anybody seriously interested in Britain’s role in the war now raging in Iraq and Syria. It turns out that, for all the British Government’s bombast about fighting Isis, it has not bothered to develop a political and military policy towards it. This would, in any case, be difficult to do because Government has denied itself the means of knowing what is happening in Iraq. The committee reports that even in December 2014, “despite the UK’s long involvement in Iraq, there were no UK personnel on the ground with deep expertise in the tribes, or politics of Iraq, or a deep understanding of the Shia militia, who are doing much of the fighting”.

Here, in one of the most dangerous places on earth, Britain has once again become militarily involved – if only to the extent of launching one air strike a day – without knowing what it wants to do. The report says: “The committee was shocked by the inability or unwillingness of any of the service chiefs to provide a clear, and articulate statement of the UK’s objectives or strategic plan in Iraq. There was a lack of clarity over who owns the policy – and indeed whether or not such a policy exists.”

The service chiefs in question responded to queries about what they thought they were up to in Iraq with some splendid pieces of waffle and mandarin-speak. Asked who was responsible for determining future British actions, Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford, said: “Well, the answer is that there are probably about 20 different players who own different elements of the comprehensive approach that needs to be applied in Iraq, in Syria and right around the region, because of the multifaceted and multi-natured nature [sic] of the ultimate solution, and all the moving parts that need to go into place.”

In pictures: Iraq crisis Show all 98 1 /98 In pictures: Iraq crisis In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Mourners burying 15 bodies in the village of Taza Khormato, near the northern city of Kirkuk AP In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A Shiite Turkman fighter from the so-called Sahwa or "Awakening" force, manning a position on the front line with insurgents led by the Isis group which has overran swathes of five provinces north and west of Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on their military vehicles drive towards the front lines of Mosul villages where they fight against Isis, in the Khazer area between the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Kurdish city of Irbil In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Shi'ite volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the Isis, take part in a military-style training in Basra, southeast of Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A Kurdish peshmerga fighter takes his position behind a wall on the front line with militants from the Isis group, in Tuz Khormato, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the oil rich province of Kirkuk In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqis who fled with families the violence in their home towns walk at a refugee camp near the city of Mosul In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A member of the Jordanian Bedouin forces stands guard in front of the Jordanian Karameh border crossing at the Jordanian-Iraqi border, near Ruweished city In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqis gather at the site of a car bomb explosion in a Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk. The blast killed at least three people and also wounded 15 others in the northern part of the tinderbox oil hub, which lies at the centre of territory Iraq's Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region over the objections of Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi Kurdish forces take position near Taza Khormato AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Kurdistan regional government president Massud Barzani greets US Secretary of State John Kerry at the presidential palace in Arbil Getty Images In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi men queue to for a medical check up as they volunteer to join the security forces at a recruitment centre in Baghdad Getty Images In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Kurdish fighters believe they are ‘facing a new reality and a new Iraq’ AP In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A member of the Kurdish security forces takes up position with his weapon while guarding an oil refinery, on the outskirts of Mosul In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi Turkmen stand with their weapons as they ready to fight against militants led by the jihadist, in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Volunteers of the newly formed "Peace Brigades" participate in a parade in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, Baghdad. Thousands of Shiite militiamen have paraded in Baghdad and several other cities in southern Iraq with heavy weaponry, signaling their readiness to take on Sunni militants who control a large chunk of the country's north In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi security forces, loyal to Muslim Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr take part in a military parade in the shrine city of Najaf, in central Iraq. International leaders and Iraq's Shiite religious elite have called on the country to unite to face off the insurgent threat, with US Secretary of State John Kerry this weekend heading to the Middle East and Europe in a diplomatic push to bring political stability to the country In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi Shiite mourners carry the coffin of a Shiite militiaman killed in Muqdadiyah during his funeral procession, in the shrine city of Najaf. Militants attacked the town of Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad and a key approach to Diyala provincial capital Baquba, sparking clashes that killed 30 Shiite militiamen In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Al-Qa’ida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Members of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces take their positions during clashes with the Isis group in the city of Ramadi In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Members of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces shoot during the clashes with the Isis gruop in the city of Ramadi In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A Peshmerga unit is ready and armed on the front lines outside Kirkuk In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A U.S. Geological Survey satellite image shows smoke rising from the Baiji refinery near Tikrit In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A column of smoke rises from an oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi men line up at the main army recruiting center to volunteer for military service in Baghdad, after authorities urged Iraqis to help battle insurgents In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi Shiite women hold their weapons as they gather to show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities in the southern Shiite Muslim shrine city of Najaf In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Kurdish Peshmerga fighters stand next to the bed of a comrade wounded in clashes with jihadists in Kirkuk at the emergency ward of a hospital in Arbil In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter wounded in the legs in clashes with Isis in Kirkuk is watched by a family member as he lies on a bed in the emergency ward of a hospital in Arbil In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Relatives stand vigil for a Kurdish peshmerga fighter wounded in fighting as he is treated in a hospital in Irbil. Kurdish security and hospital officials said that fighting has been raging since morning between Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga and militants who are trying to take the town of Jalula, in the restive Diyala province some 80 miles (125 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad. Ethnic Kurds now control the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, moving to fill a vacuum after the flight of Iraqi soldiers. They too are battling the Sunni extremist militants In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Major General Jamil al-Shammari (C), police chief of Iraq's Diyala province north of Baghdad, inspects the Mafraq police station which includes a prison where the bodies of 44 prisoners were found. An attack by militants was pushed back by Iraqi security forces in Baquba, Diyala's provincial capital within only 60 kilometres (37 miles) of Baghdad, leaving 44 prisoners dead at the Mafraq police station. Accounts differed as to who was responsible for the prisoner killings, with the security spokesman of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki saying the prisoners were killed by insurgents carrying out the attack, and other officials saying they were killed by security forces as they tried to escape In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi men mourn over the coffin of an Iraqi soldier who was killed in the clashes with militants in northern Iraq, during the funeral procession in Najaf. More than two million Iraqis have volunteered to fight against militants from the Isis group, Iraqi Energy Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said. The government had no capacity to process any more volunteers, he adds. Isis and other Sunni fighters, including groups linked to the former ruling Baath Party, were reported that they now control swathes of northern Iraq after a lightning advance recently In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi displaced people, who have fled violence in Iraq's northern Nineveh province, walk past the wreckage of military vehicles upon their arrival in al-Hamdaniyah, 76 kms west of the Kurdish autonomous region's capital Arbil In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qa’ida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Personnel from the Kurdish security forces detain a man suspected of being a militant belonging to the Isis group, in the outskirts of Kirkuk In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi women walk at the site of a car bomb explosion in the mainly Shiite Sadr City district in Baghdad, which killed at least seven people and wounded 20. The blast came amid a week-long militant offensive in which insurgents have seized vast swathes of territory in northern Iraq In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A member of the oil police force stands guard at Zubair oil field in Basra Reuters In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq An Iraqi man with a boy inspects the scene of a car bomb attack in Sadr city EPA In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi Shiite tribesmen parade with their weapons in central Baghdad's Palestine Street as they show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities. Faced with a militant offensive sweeping south toward Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteer to fight, and thousands have signed up In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi men queue at the entrance of a volunteer centre in Karbala city EPA In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Members of the Shiite Muslim Mehdi Army militia, take part in training in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Iraqi Shiite volunteers, who had been fighting in neighbouring Syria, have been heading home to battle an offensive that has brought militants to near Baghdad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi men flash victory signs as they leave the main recruiting center to join the Iraqi army in Baghdad AP In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Refugees queue to register at a temporary camp in northern Iraq Getty Images In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Newly-recruited Iraqi volunteers, wearing police forces uniforms, take part in a briefing at a training centre in Karbala Getty Images In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Kurdish peshmerga forces keep guard around Tal Afar of Mosul Getty Images In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against the Isis group in the northwest Baghdad's Shula neighborhood In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Tribal fighters carry their weapons as they take part in an intensive security deployment in Dujail, north of Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi soldiers watch as armed tribesmen gather to show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities in the southern city of Basra In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against the Isis group in the northwest Baghdad's Shula neighborhood In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Mehdi Army fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr march during a military-style training in the holy city of Najaf. The United States said it could launch air strikes and act jointly with its arch-enemy Iran to support the Iraqi government, after a rampage by Sunni Islamist insurgents across Iraq that has scrambled alliances in the Middle East In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi Army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, gather with their weapons during a parade on the streets in Basra, southeast of Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq An Iraqi young boy holds a weapon from the window of a car as people gather to show their readiness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities in the capital Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Tribal fighters from Ramadi hold up their weapons as they shout slogans in support of Iraqi security forces in Kerbala In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi security forces fire artillery during clashes with Sunni militant group Isis in Jurf al-Sakhar In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi security forces fire artillery during clashes with Sunni militant group Isis in Jurf al-Sakhar In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Ammar al-Hakim, leader of Iraq's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, exercises a shooting drill in the main army recruiting center in Baghdad. Thousands of Shiites from Baghdad and across southern Iraq answered an urgent call to arms, joining security forces to fight the Islamic militants who have captured large swaths of territory north of the capital and now imperil a city with a much-revered religious shrine In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq An Iraqi security officer stands guard outside the Church of the Virgin Mary in the northern town of Bartala, east of the northern city of Mosul as some Iraqi security stayed in the town to protect the local churches and community In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq The insurgent offensive that has threatened to dismember Iraq spread to the northwest of the country, when Sunni militants launched a dawn raid on a town close to the Syrian border, clashing with police and government forces In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Volunteers walk with their weapons during a parade in the streets in Al-Fdhiliya district, eastern Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A volunteer, who has joined the Iraqi Army to fight against predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, holds a weapon during a parade in the streets in Al-Fdhiliya district, eastern Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A women and a girl wash at a tap at a temporary displacement camp set up next to a Kurdish checkpoint in Kalak. Thousands of people have fled Iraq's second city of Mosul after it was overrun by Isis (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) militants. Many have been temporarily housed at various IDP (internally displaced persons) camps around the region including the area close to Erbil, as they hope to enter the safety of the nearby Kurdish region In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Families arrive at a Kurdish checkpoint next to a temporary displacement camp in Kalak In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq An Iraqi refugee girl from Mosul stands outside her family's tent at Khazir refugee camp outside Irbil, 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Days after Iraq's second-largest city fell to Isis fighters, some Iraqis are already returning to Mosul, lured back by insurgents offering cheap gas and food, restoring power and water and removing traffic barricades In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Civilians escape from Mosul and come to a region that close to Erbil city and are placed to camp by United Nations and Kurd government in Iraq In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Young men in Baghdad chant slogans against Isis outside the main army recruiting centre yesterday, where they are volunteering to fight the extremist group Karin Kadim/AP In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Volunteers who have joined the Iraqi Army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants, who have taken over Mosul and other Northern provinces, board an army truck in Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A girl, who fled from the violence in Mosul, carries a case of water at a camp on the outskirts of Arbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A displaced Iraqi woman washes her family's laundry as the children shower outside their tent at a temporary camp set up to shelter civilians fleeing violence in Iraq's northern Nineveh province in Aski kalak, 40 kms west of the Kurdish autonomous region's capital Arbil In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi refugees from Mosul arrive at Khazir refugee camp outside Irbil, 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Baghdad AP In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Refugees flee Mosul AP In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi families fleeing violence in the northern Nineveh province gather at a Kurdish checkpoint in Aski kalak, 40 kms West of Arbil, in the autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Refugees fleeing from Mosul head to the self-ruled northern Kurdish region in Irbil, Iraq, 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Baghdad AP In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq An Iraqi woman carries her property while fleeing from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok due to the clashes between security forces and militants of Isis in Arbil In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Iraqi people receive water as they flee from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq A woman carries a child as families fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Mosul wait at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region. Radical Sunni Muslim insurgents seized control of most of Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, overrunning a military base and freeing hundreds of prisoners in a spectacular strike against the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq An Iraqi man and his wife flee from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq The residents gather at a security checkpoint between the provinces of Irbil and Duhok which is controlled by Kurdish Peshmerga troops In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Uniforms reportedly belonging to Iraqi security forces scattered on the road AFP In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq An armoured vehicle belonging to Iraqi security forces in flames, after hundreds of militants from the Isis group launched a major assault on the security forces in Mosul, some 370 km north from the Iraqi capital Baghdad In pictures: Iraq crisis Iraq Civilian children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and Isis group in the northern Iraq city of Mosul

Such stuff is impossible to parody. Of course, there is a simple and humiliating answer to the question about who determines policy: the US. The report states baldly: “Many questions of the ‘mission’, or strategy, appear to have been left either in a vacuum between government departments or left to the international coalition (which appears to mean the US). We saw no evidence of the UK Government as a whole seeking to analyse, question, or change the coalition strategy, to which it is committed.”

Even supine support for US policy may not bring solutions. Speaking before the US Senate Armed Services Committee in January, retired US General James Mattis said that in the war against Isis, the US has a “strategy-free” stance. At one and the same time it is seeking to weaken and eliminate Isis, but is also trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad whose army is the main military opponent of Isis. The US’s supposed aim is to install moderate rebels instead of Isis and Assad, but these barely exist outside a few pockets.

At senior levels, US leaders probably do perceive their dilemma in combating Isis while heading an alliance that excludes most of those fighting it on the ground but includes those who helped to foster the self-declared caliphate. What the US really thinks about the rise of Isis and al-Qaeda-type organisations was revealed with undiplomatic frankness by Vice-President Joe Biden at a small meeting at Harvard University last October. Biden’s words are now almost forgotten, but they undoubtedly reflect many America leaders’ real take on the situation. He said that Saudi Arabia, UAE and Turkey “were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war. What did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.”

Basra was the base for UK military operations between 2003 and 2007 (Reuters)

Isis, under pressure in Iraq, rebuilt its strength by joining the Syrian revolt. As for the famous “moderates” who are going to oppose Isis and Assad, Biden said that “there was no moderate middle because the moderate middle are made up of shopkeepers, not soldiers”. Not surprisingly, when I asked an Iraqi friend last week what Britain could do to help the Iraqi government, he replied only half-jokingly: “Bomb Saudi Arabia!”

Britain is a minor player in the war in Iraq, but as the Jordanians discovered to their horror last week, a minor player may become a major target. Probably that was one message Isis was sending by the ritual murder of the Jordanian pilot. But, going by the report of Defence Committee, nobody in the British political and military establishment has much idea of what is going on in Iraq and Syria or elsewhere in the region. The Defence Committee report has various suggestions about aid for the anti-Isis governments in Baghdad and Irbil, the Kurdish capital, which would not cost much out of a £38bn defence budget. But the most important part of the report is the demand for Britain to develop the ability to assess independently the real situation on the ground by having “specialists posted immediately to Iraq to focus separately on the Sunni communities, the Iraqi security forces, the Peshmerga, the Shia militia and Daesh [the Arabic acronym for Isis]”.

Britain remains obsessed with the Iraq war of 2003 and the finer points of what happened then, which may (or may not) be elucidated by the Chilcot inquiry. But this focus on what happened more than a decade ago has served as diversion or smoke screen to hide more recent but culpable actions by British political leaders such as David Cameron’s role in overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi as leader of Libya in 2011 or seeking to displace Assad in the years since – both actions much to the benefit of al-Qaeda-type groups.

“Political and strategic preparations must go hand in hand,” Sir Eyre Crowe, a famed foreign office mandarin, wrote before the First World War. “Failure of such harmony must lead either to military disaster or political retreat.” At the very least, it will produce some nasty surprises.