Sir - John Phillpott (WN. 21/2/15) is only partially correct in putting a large part of the blame for the tragedy that is the situation in the Middle East at the door of Tony Blair although he is culpable.
The seeds of the current mayhem lie at the end of the world war 1 and the collapse of the Ottoman empire. States such as Iraq were arbitrarily formed and borders drawn in the sand mainly by the British. It was the itinerant tribesmen who ran with T E Lawrence who were the beneficiaries.
John Phillpott is quite correct in putting a great deal of the blame at Blair’s door but British culpability goes back much further than that.
The current situation has been an accident waiting to happen going back close to a 100 years. The only surprise is that it has taken this long to blow up.
Clive Smith
Malvern
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