Now that the USA, the UK and France have taken the decision to "intervene" in Syria, one can only wonder if and what the "blow back" will be in neighbouring Iraq?
Whilst the situations in both countries are often treated as two separate entities in the Western media, one could easily forget that in Iraq, the three "allied" countries of Britain, France and America have troops, translators, aid agencies and diplomatic staff based there.
Since before the 2014 invasion of Mosul by so-called Islamic State, it has been a long held belief by many across the Middle East, that ISIS was a creation of the American CIA and the British MI6 intelligence agencies.
These views were reinforced by the failure of Western countries to prevent Jihadists from joining ISIS after the invasion of Mosul, and from speculative reports of American aircraft flying over and in some cases, were said to have "air dropped" into area's that fell under ISIS control.
In a study conducted by the U.S. State Department in 2015, it found that one third of Iraqis believed the USA “supports terrorism in general or ISIL specifically,” and the USA is purposefully “working to destabilize Iraq" and the region to "control its natural resources.”
As people who know Iraq well, history also knows from experience, that when decisions are taken for any kind of military intervention, the "effects" across the region are often felt in the least expected of places, despite the personal feelings of those immediately involved.
Hussein Al-alak is editor of Iraq Solidarity News (Al-Thawra)
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