Should the West end its wars?
Mehdi Hasan goes head to head with General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the British army.
It is a great, great challenge. Afghanistan is on the way. We have not failed in the way you insist on putting it so dramatically.
A decade of Western interventions in the Middle East is coming to an end. But is the West leaving behind better countries than they found? Or were their campaigns total fiascos?
Nicknamed Darth Vader by his men and Macho Jacko by the British tabloid press, General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the British army, says the West did not always achieve its objectives, but will not admit failure.
Mehdi Hasan asks Sir Jackson: Does the West have a right to intervene? Can strategic and humanitarian objectives be reconciled? Should Syria be next?
Joining the discussion are: Frank Ledwidge, a former intelligence military officer and author of Losing Small Wars, a highly critical work of the British army’s strategy in Iraq; Deborah Haynes, the defence editor of The Times of London and a correspondent during the Iraq War; and Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East specialist who supports intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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