We have reached the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Even though the number of British troops remaining is down to 4,000 – from a peak of 46,000 at the time of the invasion – the economic costs of this debacle are not going away soon.

The British experience in Iraq has uncannily echoed the US experience. In both countries, the war has strained military morale to breaking point, depleted the military equipment arsenal and brought in its wake a national scandal over the country’s failure to care properly for its wounded veterans.