The Americans announced recently that they were tightening their sanctions against Assad because he was buying oil from IS. The theory being that the stronger IS is, the greater the likelihood that the rest of the world will seek to reinstall Assad as the lesser of two
There is poverty across the Middle East despite a century of oil production and a myriad of regimes since WW1.
Arab nationalists , call them what you want, have a reasonable case for the fairer distribution of petro-dollars
and decent living conditions for all in the region. Regimes such as ISIS, Al Qaeda, The Muslim Brotherhood
etc get oxygen from this sense of injustice and the overarching ideology of Islam.
The Western World has sat on its hands for 65 years and tolerated the displacement of the Palistinians who,
through the dispossession of their lands and the military bullying of an elvolving Israel has put generation after generation of Muslim Arabs on humanity' scrap heap.
Like firefighting, we must address the fuel first if we want to solve Muslim militancy and consequent terrorism;
not simply seek regime change which will be little better or sometimes worse than the status quo (ie: Iraq & Afghanisatn)
The USA and its Western Allies have to be fit to demonstrate to the world that its intervention in the domestic
politics of another country brings improvement and there is no tangible evidence yet that improvement can or
is being achieved in the Middle East.
In summary, the West should be reducing the fuel load of revolution (poverty, injustice and fair and sustainable economies together with reviewing and curtailing so called religious freedoms that are idologically firing terrorism
as a means to an end.).
Fundamental Christians and Jews who rely on the literal translation of the Bible should be equally curtailed
with fundamental Muslims who rely on a literal translation of the Koran. Neither texts in their literal translations
should be allowed precedence over our criminal or civil law codes because they contain practices and principles
that are abhorrent in a civilised society. Instead, Western countries sit put with constitutional articles guaranteeing
religious freedoms without caveats like "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". How ridiculous is this in a
Society that bans Capital Punishment yet allows fundamental Christians to spruik such biblical literal translations!
Before shooting we should have a clear, fair and sustainable plan in place and the ability to demonstrate to the
world that it works; otherwise it will be viewed by history that our efforts are futile like our defeat in Vietnam
and at best warmongering for the sake of warmongering.
