[user104658]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

That's not really the right attitude though is it. If we followed that logic, we may as well all sit back and wait for our own beheadings which would inevitably follow in a few years.

You fight each battle as it arrives. 70 miles from Baghdad is a reason to hit IS hard, much harder than they have ever been hit before. This is a bunch of poorly trained, trainer wearing thugs that could be wiped out for a generation with the right strategy. Now is the time to do it

It might not be the "right attitude" but it's the truth. Wiped out for a generation? What, like Al Qaeda? Tear the region to shreds- again - to stamp out one group and another one will rise within years, if not months, and will probably be worse than the last.

I'm not saying we have any alternative but to continue to try to keep the problem at bay but it's little more than endless sticking plasters covering an infected wound. It won't heal. It will never heal. I'm sorry if that depresses you but... hey... it's depressing.
You can't cure cancer with a hammer.