Just thinking out loud really but I was fairly involved in NI for a few years and this argument was trotted out many times about that place. I did indeed wonder what we were doing there but the result was the best trained army in urban warfare, perhaps. This was, I was reliably informed, going to be the war of the future - population control after major conflict. If you reckon that our future conflicts will be against chaps from sandy places looking for virgins, then our forces are getting the experience they need. I have even heard red stripey types argue that, if we didn't gain so much real training then we may have ended nasty campaigns sooner. If nowt else, our brave boys are giving the nasties something to chew on and keep the worst of it over there and not here. They are in fact protecting your children, cheaply
all this said, I have serious doubts as to our current strategy as I had about NI and, in the end, if we achieve some kind of peace it will be done politically.