Reddit reviews Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam

The cause of friction in the middle east has a religious nature (see the sunni shia divide for just one example). The fact that random colonial borders were drawn with no thought given to the composition of the population means that it is difficult to have peace unless you are being ruled by an iron fist because there's a weak sense of national identity. When this iron fist is removed and its army dismantled (as happened in Iraq), all hell breaks loose.

The war in Iraq (in my opinion) was waged in an incredibly ignorant way, and as you rightly point out, was based on outright lies. The removal of Saddam opened the door to a centuries old conflict, but to suggest the war itself was the direct cause, I feel, is a mistake.

I also feel like you're oversimplifying loads of things. British muslims going to Syria has very little to do with Iraq (though the collapse of Iraq and Syria are probably no coincidence) and lots to do with the Wahabbi control of religious doctrine in Saudi Arabia. These nutcases are paying serious cash to perpetuate their sick version of Islam around the globe and it is working.

If you're interested, here's some books on the subject (not trying to be patronising, just trying to help):

Inside Jihad

Inside the kingdom

If you actually are interested in this then there are books that cover the subject that have been around for years. This is a good start: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Jihad-Understanding-Confrontng-Confronting/dp/0981547109/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1425474533&sr=8-2&keywords=understanding+jihad