From the article:
But a defence insider who has discussed the issue with officials at the highest levels in the Ministry of Defence said: “They are worried that if they do more on the Iranian border there will be nasty incidents for us at the fag end of a campaign and that we could get sucked into a long-lasting conflict with Iran.”
Can anyone imagine the outcry if the NYT printed a story with some top Pentagon official referring to “the fag end” of an operation?
That expression jumped out at me
Hey, maybe the French will do it.
Sad to see the once magnificent Brits reduced to their current state. We should escort them all out of Iraq before any more of them get hurt and then get down to business figuring out how to get things done without them.