TOMORROW, the House of Commons may give Prime Minister David Cameron a narrow mandate to order the Royal Air Force to join forces with the United States and five Arab allies and bomb the unholy warriors of Islamic State.

The party conference season is being interrupted to bring MPs back to Parliament. Bradford West Respect Party MP George Galloway interrupted his schedule – he’s currently making a feature-length documentary film called The Killing of Tony Blair – to reflect on the fact he requested the recall of Parliament back in August, at the start of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

“Not only did they not recall parliament, but my request did not receive a reply from the Speaker; now, miraculously, they are going to do it,” Mr Galloway said.

Shipley Conservative MP Philip Davies said he had been told by the party chief whip the motion before MPs concerned air strikes against IS only in Iraq – not in Syria, as appeared to be likely after the intensive American bombing earlier this week.

“If it’s a matter of air strikes in Iraq, I have told the chief whip I will probably abstain. I am the least gung-ho about these things. I voted against intervention against President Assad in Syria last year,” he added.

Mr Galloway, who will be returning to Parliament from Oxford where he has been filming, said he was in favour of “total war” against IS, but not by Britain.

“Because that would only increase the appeal of extremist fanatics. Instead of bombing we should be strengthening those who have been fighting IS for the last three years – the governments of Iraq and Syria. But now it looks as though we are going to get involved.

“We are about to close a youth centre in Bradford Moor to save £18,000. Just one Tomahawk cruise missile costs £750,000,” he added.

Last year’s narrow vote against air strikes against the Syrian Government will have given David Cameron and Conservative Party whips an idea of how far he may go irrespective of whatever he brings away from talks with the United Nations in New York.

Mr Davies said: “In terms of public opinion I think there’s a feeling that if we had got involved in Syria last year we could have been on the side of IS. There is a feeling among my constituents that IS is a danger to the West.

“I don’t think there’s any appetite for British troops getting involved. I wouldn’t support that.”

Bradford East Liberal Democrat MP David Ward, who also voted against British air strikes in Syria last year, said he had not yet been told the wording of the motion to be put to MPs, but said if Iraq requested targeted and limited air strikes he would support it.

“They wouldn’t be recalling Parliament unless they had all-party agreement. It’s a big decision but less controversial if it’s not about British troops on the ground,” he added.

Some people may be wondering how it comes about that the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which last year came close to be attacked by the United States and Britain, is now being supported by them.

So much so the Americans have already started bombing the Sunni Muslim fighters of Islamic State who have taken over swathes of Syria and disaffected northern Iraq in its war to create an Islamic caliphate.

Others will recall that we have been here before. In the 1980 Iraq-Iran war, Britain and America gave support and military aid to Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein against Iran’s Islamic Republic. Twenty-three years later the Americans and British invaded Iraq.

Professor Paul Rogers, from the University of Bradford’s department of peace studies, said if the Prime Minister is seeking a mandate to send in the RAF to bomb Islamic State he may get it, but there would be a lot of unease because of what’s happened before in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The Taliban were supposed to have been defeated in six weeks; Saddam Hussein in three weeks. But the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been going on for 13 years and 11 years respectively.

“It is tempting to say we should destroy Islamic State, but you have to be incredibly cautious. The toughest elements of IS are Iraqis who fought against the Americans after 2003. I think they probably welcome it because it supports their case against the West.”

Alternatives, he suggested, included inclusive political reforms in Iraqi, especially for Sunni Muslims, and greater humanitarian aid which Britain was good at, which would undermine support for IS.