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The pretend war: why bombing Isil won't solve the problem

The deployment of our military might in Syria will exacerbate regional disorder – and it will solve nothing

28 November 2015

9:00 AM

28 November 2015

9:00 AM

Not so long ago, David Cameron declared that he was not some ‘naive neocon who thinks you can drop democracy out of an aeroplane at 40,000 feet’. Just a few weeks after making that speech, Cameron authorised UK forces to join in the bombing of Libya — where the outcome reaffirmed this essential lesson.

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Andrew J. Bacevich is a retired US colonel, and author of America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History, due out in April.

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