[a_Turk]

>>living is easy with eyes closed

And even "misunderstanding all you see"

Your minister just returned from Turkey having been rebuffed. Seeing British troops in number in Northern Iraq, let alone in Turkey would make many of us ill even after all these years.

You may have learned about Kut, then Mudros, then Sevres and finally Lausanne, where Britain played the leading role in wresting the oilfields from us. I feel it was quite brazen of the fellow to come asking..

I do not blame your leadership for feeling slightly worried about the possible complications which could arise from this arguably an extra-terror-war excursion. Killing one rat is perhaps easy if it's cornered, but what if all the rats come attacking. That could very well mark the unrecoverable bottom of a long and slow decline..

Nothing personal Ivan. Just an observation.

[unending thunder]

All your Mosuls are ours. MadIvan is a pub bore, bragging and bellicose, wrapped in a tattered Union Jack. It's still before 1.00pm so he will still be sober.