Theresa May and Donald Trump. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/PA Images. All rights reserved.In her speech to senior Republicans on 26 January, the British prime minister Theresa May made it clear that large-scale interventions by the west were a thing of the past. "The days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over", she declared. That may be a welcome intruding of reality after fifteen years of war, hundreds of thousands of people killed, and millions displaced. The statement is also utterly misleading.
Britain is actually involved in a concentrated and sustained war in the Middle East that started two and a half years ago and shows no sign whatsoever of ending. Indeed there are clear signs that the war itself is also a stage-set for further conflict in Iraq. It will also intensify as the true nature of the Trump regime in Washington becomes plain.
The main reason why the current war is getting so little coverage in the western media is that it is largely hidden from view. It is a war by remote control – using drones, strike-aircraft, special forces, private-security outfits and other means – but nonetheless a huge foreign intervention that avoids tens of thousands of "boots on the ground" and is therefore close to invisible.
