THE military talk in the past couple of years as British forces began shutting down in Afghanistan was all about ‘return to contingency.’

Dealing with other kinds of conflict and issues in the world, as and when needed.

Today, the UK is poised to be back in (or rather over) Iraq to combat Islamic State militants.

The Prime Minister has braced the public for a deployment of years not months.

The action is right because standing by, doing nothing and failing to confront the threat is not an option.

But in the long term there will be few, if any winners.

Not so much return to contigency. More back to the future.