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What is your solution to IS, if not a military one?

8 US airstrikes in Aleppo have hit al Qaeda franchise Khorasan. Apparently they were in advanced stages of an attack in the west and posed an "imminent" threat.

The long term cause to the current problem is around a 1000 years older than the US. Sunni's don't like the Twelvers and the Twelvers don't like the Sunnis. You might argue that because of the West demand for oil, that a particularly singular approach (one mosque amongst Wahhabism's creed and all that) to Islam has billions of dollars at its disposal to go and bug the Twelvers across the region. I wouldn't be blaming the US though for twists of geology and geography. That underlines everything in the region. Heck, even Sunni's don't like other Sunnis. Just to confuse things, IS want to get stuck into Palestinians, because they're Iranian buddies and just too nationalist. Your post seems contradcitory to me and pretty abstract from what has been happening. Far from doing "what they want, be damned with the consequences", the situation with IS flourished because the US did not do anything. Obama dithered and the Saudi's and Qataris backed rebels in Syria of their own choosing. Who was surprised when they turned out to be the most brutal of the lot? You also attack the US for acting unilaterraly, then pour scorn on the idea of them having local actors in KSA et al involved, because they're autocratic, but then chide them for not involving Syria, despite issues of the same. Issues including a helathy dollop of genocide and war crimes on top to give Assad that extra flavour. I think you're also wrong about the apparent ignoring of Syria and Tehrran too; US CAS in Iraq has been provided to the Shia militia lead by Iranian commanders and on occassions, so I have heard, Quds Force. I also agree with Awol's earlier point that Syria had given the thumbs up for the current strike. This is who we have to deal with in the region, throwing in Turkey, who have been tacitly supporting IS through oil purchase and freedom of movement to IS coming in and out of theatre, to even providing military expertise. There are no clean hands and it has been a feature of all our allies, from The Kingdom with IS, to Pakistani ISI and al Qadea; to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. So I will agree with one part of your post, that there there are conflciting policies on-going from the regional players. As for bombing civilians, surely then you welcome the US airstrikes in Syria? The US have far more sophisticated Forward Air Control procedures with JSOC calling them in, thus ensuring more of what you want to hit is actually hit, than any Syrian or Iranian or Magic Kingdom air?

I am not sure how re-supplying IS is going to be of any benefit to containing their numbers or ability to strike further into Syria. An MEU rolling into Raqqa would put a stop to the wholsale slaughter of non-Muslims or those that don't quit fit the bill, it would more than likely end the raping of women, children and stop local courts justifying the rape of 13 year old girls. IS in Raqqa is not so much an insurgency, requiring COIN ops (as I think you're alluding to), but an occupying army, complete with all the trappings of soft government.

Destroying kit you're leaving behind requires organisation. An army in rout lacks organisation, because it isn't an army any more, in this case just Shia boys heading for the hills. I am not really sure of what you're implying here? Are you suggesting that IS is some sort of phantom?

… Or, it could be that you're not going to be able to contain IS in Iraq without hitting their safe heaven, where they train, recruit and re-supply forces from. Pity it's taken so long for some properly directed air-strikes to come about, in light of IS and their genocidal rampage against minorities up that way, their semi-industrialised slaughter of captured Syrian troops and the mass raping of women and children, but better late than never.

The Today programme has just confirmed that Syria has stated it has not approved this action (about 8.18 if you want to hear the replay when it's available). They also mentioned that there is concern among the UK government about the legality of such action, which seems to be an acknowledgement that it's illegal without wanting to say so in plain terms. Syria, as was drawn up, no longer exists beyond black lines on a map. The Syrian government isn't in charge of the area around al Raqqa and hasn't been for some considerable time. It is questionable whether they have the means to stop IS hitting and getting a foothold in Aleppo, which is perhaps why these containment strikes have been commenced. Awol has the measure of this; the lack of a Syrian government response is a loud indicator that the US are welcome to degrade IS, as far as the Syrian Government is concerned. As I said previously, it wouldn't surprise me if Syria have called this on in an attempt to bring themselves in from the cold and it would be interesting to hear Terhan's view on this and whether they have given the nod too. The consequence may be it alienates the Sunni's in Iraq further, making a formal partition more likely. The US talk of arming rebels in Syria is an interesting one, considering there is an admission that they don't understand what is happening on the ground in enough detail and they want to avoid a vacuum situation for our "close friends" to fill again with their brand of Takfiri. It's also worth noting, that in this sort of conflict, the moderates will be marginalised as part of the brutalisation of the conflict, so who really is acceptable to arm in Syria? Interesting about Israel. I haven't read anything about Golan since Nursa Front took some key crossings there and would imagine the IDF have had their finger on the trigger ever since.

If I had to place my money on somebody approaching another, it would be Syria approaching the US. Just a hunch. On a side note, we could have a situation with US, KSA and Iranian air are all in the same Syrian air space providing CAS. That's a bit of a head scratcher.

Why would Assad object to strikes around Raqqa anyway? It's the heartland of bandit country.

Assad would love to be brought in from the cold. There are 1800 factions in the Syrian Civil war, complex doesn't cut it.

Can I have theink pretty please?

Tunisian forces have had a go with brand IS in the last week too. The franchise is spreading.

As AWOL said, it's the secterian point. Shia boys aren't going to die for Sunni land, while the Sunni tribes welcomed them in because they had been abandoned by Maliki and excluded from the top table, while their own Awakening forces were not amalgamated into the Iraqi army. IS became a lesser of two evils, although many of those tribal leaders have now paid for that choice with their necks. It's not about the size of the force, but how it's applied. When IS rolled in, it was a brigade size, full of people who had cut their teeth against the likes of Hezbollah (get good or die) et al in Syria, Chechens etc and soon supplemented by men who had survived ten years of insurgency in al Anbar. They showed a genuine capability to manoeuvre at a battalion level and re-supply on the go, while only facing small pockets of Iraqi Special Forces and some pretty poorly directed air from the IA. It's no mystery or grand conspiracy, they happen to be less terrorist band and more effective army, offering soft government to the locals, while flogging oil to pay wages that go along with all that lovely US kit they swagged. Edit for spelling

The Dialy Mail isn't the source. Here is another link to the same rant: http://justpaste.it/aladnane A couple of "highlights: in between shouting "the Jews! The Jews the Jews" there was this pearl:

We arm, fund and control...IS? Is that what is being suggested or have I missed the point?

They might take a little longer to get to the US though!

To back up what I said a few days ago regarding rubber dingy rapids and foreign fighters, between the US and French air forces, perhaps IS Command could do us a favour by continuing to thin the numbers of UK fighters capable of returning home too. http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/culture/exclusive-qa-with-former-islamic-state-member_26696

I posted a link to it a few pages back. The vast majority of IS atrocities are unreported in the Western media.

What are the allegations against the Aussie police here? What have those conducted the raid supposed to have done wrong?

It is the upper tier only on sale now, so there will be at least 1800 sold and however many hundred of the upper sold. If it doesn't sell out today, then it will by Monday.

Agreed. That would be madness, seriously. Come up to Liverpool where the city is split into 3 different councils or Manchester where its split into many more and you'll see the kind of ludicrous situations that split cities create. Most people up here would argue for the opposite, as long as someone paid Liverpool's current HUGE debt off. You can tell when you cross the border into Liverpool CC, the roads become absolutely awful and thats just one minor example. May be so, but BCC has not got a pot to pee in. It's too big (Europes largest) and seeing as we don't market ourselves or having anything resembling a good business sector, they cannot feasible continue. They're shutting down public gyms, leisure centres and trying to centralise schools to stop the rot, plus they've announce a £200 million pound cost cutting exercise - where 4,000 council jobs are to be cut by 2016 or 17 (can't remember). The only good thing we have to bring in revenue is the German Xmas market That is nonsense about Birmingham not marketting itself. The council is in a bad way financially as its funding from central government is tiny and it has had issues with the equal pay claim. The Greater Birmingham initiatives though have really highlighted how business in Birmingham is booming.

If the English MP's on English matters comes in, then Labour are the party who will be buggered. I am hoping for far greater regional autonomy. In Birmingham we have the second biggest regional economy in the UK, we're the only net exporter in the UK to China, yet we're spending £100 less per head of population compared to the rest of the UK. Listen to Heseltine, give us the money and let us do something good with it.

The Western media is nowhere near as good as the media in the ME or the independent watch groups for exposing IS crimes. I expect another fluff piece on soft government such as the series we had in Vice News. "Look, the locals want us here" [as we execute their tribal leaders and exact a tithe on those that we haven't yet got around to murdering]. Incidentally a mass grave was found yesterday near Haditha with the victims being locals capped in the head.

Only 300 left.

The problem with a theological debate about whether Islam as a religion provides for violence, be it in defence of its lands etc, is largely irrelavant to the hisotrical relaity. It was a unifying idea for local conquest in Arabia. It was a unifying idea for conqest over the Sassanids and then elements of the Eastern Empire, through parts of the Western Empire and into the lands of the Franks, before receeding, all within a few hundred years of inception. It was a religion spread through violent conquest and it has been open for violent interpretation ever since. 19th century Wahabbism and its reparreance in the 20th century gave the house of Saud, bandits and raiders, a religious legitmacy. IS are attempt a more modern [which sounds like a misnomer considering that want to go back to the 6th century) interpretation of that.