Now the Iraqi forces, assisted by Shia militias, have recaptured the unhappy city again, but the surviving inhabitants are scattered into refugee camps in the surrounding desert. At a time when our discussion of Iraq, as of everything else, threatens to collapse into solipsism, we need to remember our obligations to a country that we have helped to ruin. The only consolation, and it is consolation of a very grim sort, is that there is now a clear war aim. We remember the Battle of the Somme as a futile and bloody disaster: around 300,000 men were killed over a period of six months. In the meantime, what Britain can do is to continue to supply aid, and see that it reaches the neediest.

Source: The Guardian July 04, 2016 18:40 UTC