Iraq, Now and then

I doubt if there are many people who do not wish the policy goal of eliminating ISIS or whatever it wants to be called.
However there must be a main goal. The Allies must know what it is and this when it is achieved.

When The USA and other counties illegally invaded Iraq previously no-one knew why. The reason was unknown.Given this it followed there was little idea of when the military should leave the country.
We knew at the time Iraq posed little threat to its neighbours let alone to the USA or the UK. They knew they posed no WMDS. ( Howard was told by two Australian inspectors Iraq had no chemical weapons and then one day after being told that said exactly the opposite!. Read Greg Barton's book!).

It couldn't have been it was because Hussein was a 'bad' man because he was the only one toppled.
Hence we have no idea of the real reason for the invasion

In the end what resulted was the present mess.

This means Iraqi polity must understand they are one of the main ( but not only) reasons for the current problem.

We can only hope the current leaders are far more competent than the ones who lead us there in the first place!

Update

Here is John Quiggin