the “middle easterners have been killing each other since the bible” bollocks is an especially pernicious type of bollocks because it a) is factually untrue and b) ignores the real sources of conflict for which there are rational fixes.
also, if you’re taking a two millennia perspective and want to identify people that can’t seem to stop fighting, then it’s Europeans that take the cake. not only were they in a state of almost constant warfare on their own continent during that time (including particularly nasty episodes in the early to mid 20th century) but they also spread their killing across the Americas, Africa and Australia.
our economy benefits from UK-based weapons manufacturers selling stuff to the likes of Assad
it doesn’t. the arms industry is a massive subsidy junkie and its sales do more to damage UK investment abroad than to cultivate it.