To justify the Iraq War beginning in 2003, the United States and the U.K. promoted a media campaign to create the perception that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which posed a tangible threat to its neighbors and to the West.

Although the perception was based on disinformation, it became a reality with public opinion and had well-documented devastating consequences on both Iraq and the Iraqi people.

The demonization of Saddam Hussein eclipsed the moral conscience of the international community, and this directly paved the way for the invasion and destruction of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians perished or were displaced.

Unfortunately, to date the United States continues to bury its head in the sand, pretending that Iraq in the post-Saddam Hussein era is a functioning democracy, threatened by ISIS (Islamic State) religious extremists. This perception is also wrong, and if pursued would also have terrible consequences on Iraq and the welfare of the Iraqi people.

For the record, Iraq is a failed state run by the Iranians created, funded, and controlled by the Dawa Party. Theocratic Iran continues its religious regional ambition started by the Islamic Revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini.

The Iraqi regime is one of the most corrupt in the world, and its record on human rights is second only to that of the Tehran government in Iran. It is not qualified in protecting Iraq's national interest or security.

Therefore, the sensible way forward to address Iraq's problems is not more bombings; such actions will certainly prove counterproductive on many levels. It will force ordinary Iraqi citizens to seek refuge and offer protection to ISIS as their champions.

Witnessing Iraqi civilians being bombed and killed on a daily basis will give coherence to the ever-present danger of radicalizing waves of the younger generation being hounded by the relentless demonization of the Islamic faith and associating the faith with terrorism by far-right groups.

It will not degrade the capability of the Islamic State as such groups will, whenever threatened, melt with the population simply by taking off their black hoods and therefore cease to be a target for the bombers.

Inviting Arab governments to participate in this bombing campaign of Iraq is a strategic error of political judgment. It will incite the citizens of these countries to destabilize their governments, who have not been forgiven for joining the U.S.'s initial campaign of invading Iraq. It will also provide a cause for the Islamic State to export with vengeance its campaign of terror to these countries.

Iraq needs an independent sovereign secular state where there is no room for religious or political extremists — an inclusive government of national unity that represents Iraqis from all walks of life and is capable of defending the interest of the people and the territorial integrity of Iraq.

For this to happen, the U.S. and U.K. need to open a dialogue with Iraqi opposition groups.

These include political parties, tribal leaders, and military councils which represent members of the former national Iraqi army uprooted by Viceroy Paul Bremer for allegedly belonging to the Baathist Party.

The purpose of the dialogue is to put an end to Iranian militias roaming the streets of Iraq. Transition of power must be without Iranian interference.

Over the past few years, Iranian militias have massacred and crushed peaceful demonstrations by Iraqis opposing the brutal sectarian regime of Iraq's former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, but were unfortunately completely ignored by the outside world.

Iran should be persuaded to stop interfering in Iraq's affairs in return for better terms from the West on the current issues of sanctions, nuclear talks, security of the Gulf, and oil policies. Nouri al-Maliki could not have maintained power without the support of Iran's Shia militia.

In the 1980s, the United States and its allies helped create al-Qaida to fight a holy war against the presence of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. When it outlived its usefulness, al-Qaida was abandoned by the U.S. and accused of being a terrorist organization.

It was an ingredient of terrible, yet powerful U.S. propaganda that cited a nonexistent al-Qaida presence in Iraq as one of the causes for the invasion of that country.

Having been placed in charge of the U.S.'s surge forces in Iraq in 2007, Gen. David Petraeus helped create Al Sahwa (the awakening), a group of U.S.-funded Sunni fighters and tribal leaders charged with fighting al-Qaida in the country. Those Al Sahwa members who were not killed by al-Qaida were abandoned by the United States and felt increasingly alienated, and suffered at the hands of Maliki's government and its Shia militias.

Members of the National Council for the Awakening were handed over in 2013 by the departing United States Army to the Maliki regime, with the promise that their salaries would continue to be paid and they would be integrated into Iraq's army and security services.

Maliki reneged on these promises and the Sahwa became virtually nonexistent. Sunnis formerly serving with the group either became unemployed or joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

ISIS failed in its objective to overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria and was left to its own devices. It was able to exploit the political vacuum in Iraq created by an Iraqi regime imposed by a U.S. sectarian Constitution.

The current debacle of ISIS in Iraq and Syria is the result of U.S. policy. U.S. allies, in particular the U.K., should be skeptical and not shy away from being seen to be critical of the United States' failed policies in Iraq.

It is the only way for lessons to be learned — that by practicing the politics of ignorance, the lives of ordinary human beings are destroyed.

Dr. Burhan M. Al-Chalabi (FRSA) is publisher of The London Magazine and a fellow of the Royal Society.