Al Qaeda’s offshoot Isis (Islamic State In Iraq and the Levant) will bring jihad to Britain if it is not confronted immediately in Iraq, claims the former British Defence Secretary Liam Fox.
Writing in the Sun newspaper today, Mr Fox has said that the “well-funded, highly disciplined and arguably the most powerful non-state military force in the Middle East” poses a threat to Britain in that it could easily export terrorism abroad from an Iraqi foothold.
“We cannot afford to have Islamist extremists coming home with British passports, having waged successful jihad across the Middle East,” wrote Dr. Fox.
“That is why it is absolutely imperative that Isis is defeated. So far, the Iraqi army has displayed little more than incompetence and cowardice.”
This morning however, UKIP’s increasingly influential leader Nigel Farage said that calls for intervention in Iraq should go unheeded. Farage, who was one of the first to dismiss any intervention in Syria, said that former prime minister Tony Blair should remain silent on the issue – and that Britain’s days of intervening around the world should be over.
But Fox’s words are in stark opposition to Mr Farage – proving that on international intervention, there is a very distinct difference of opinions even on the British conservative spectrum.
“Many will be tempted to say it is not our problem, that it is something happening far away. That would be the wrong conclusion to draw,” claimed Fox.
“If Isis wins in Iraq, then it could easily become an ungoverned space that encourages and trains terrorists even more than Afghanistan before 9/11 — and we all know the cost we had to bear as a consequence. It is absolutely essential that we do not allow that to happen.”