What future for Iraq?

 

William Patey, the outgoing British Ambassador in Iraq is reported to have painted a very dire picture of the situation in Iraq in a confidential memo to the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister. Amb. Patey apparently views civil war as a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy and has said that Iraq may split up into its component parts.

My only question is 'so what?'. If Iraq is so fragile that it cannot survive without the help of a brutal dictator or a foreign army then it would probably make more sense to allow more stable and sustainable political realities to take its place. I don't think that a civil war is the best way to do this but this is up to the Iraqis really. If they want to kill each other then why should the West send its children to stand between them?