Well, a multi-national force did stop the Axis powers during WW2. A multi-national force pushed back the North Koreans. A multi-national force stopped the Malayan Emergency. OK, the Vietnam War ended in tears, but it was always going to be the case because the US in particular did not really ever understand the Vietnamese people or it's history, or ol' Ho Chi Minh for that matter. Perhaps if Kennedy had not been assassinated, things would have been different in Vietnam? Bush Snr totally screwed up by not removing Saddam during Gulf War 1 - mistake no.1. Bush Jnr probably should have left Saddam alone and continued to contain him. Perhaps a civil war would have happened anyway - who knows? The huge failure in Iraq as we know was post war - completely cocked up the occupation in the first stage by getting rid of all the police, public servants and Iraqi army - leading to looting and all those arms depot's stripped of weapons and explosives. The population gets pretty pissed off when there is no power, running water, food - just on gigantic pile of crap! The "Coalition" having started this, should have had the spine to stick with the occupation for at least another 10 years. After so many years of monarchy's then dictatorships ruling Iraq, it will take some time for this country to get it's head around democracy - very difficult with either side of Islam hating each other! Perhaps Iraq needs to be split along religious lines - Sunni's to the west, Shiite's to the east (kind of like India & Pakistan)? Weren't the lines drawn in the sand after WW1 in this region by Britain totally cocked up. Iraq was always so pissed off with the creation of Kuwait by the Brits (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iraq. The west pulling out of Iraq so early and doing nothing about the Syrian civil war was a gigantic mistake and lead to the creation of ISIS. We brought this shit onto ourselves.
I do not agree that all we should do is strengthen our defences at home. For arguments sake, that won't help Aussie tourists travelling to Europe if say an airliner gets blown up in flight, or ISIS terrorists assault a airport somewhere outside of Australia. We have to be thinking globally as a species to eradicate this evil once and for all. Dropping bombs on ISIS is not the entire solution, but part of the solution. Taking out senior ISIS leadership surgically will degrade their efforts. Al Qaeda has been greatly reduced in effectiveness, Taliban are still of course in many parts of Afghanistan, but as I understand it, they have different aims and M.O from ISIS. A deal will most likely be done with various Taliban leaders in Afghanistan. What happens when USA pulls out of Afghanistan is anyone's guess. I 100% agree with the West invading Afghanistan to rid that country of it's oppressive Taliban government, as this country was being used as a base for terrorism. The west has brought this mess onto ourselves and we cannot sit back and just shore up the defences hoping nothing will happen to us.
The only way to tackle this issue is head on - bombs on targets followed by boots on the ground. Syria and Nth Western Iraq must be occupied and a administration put in place to sort this shit out! ISIS is pure and utter evil and needs a great deal of "violence" unleashed upon it. There is no ignoring or trying to diplomatically negotiate with this organisation. Measures have and are being taken locally to reduce the attractiveness of ISIS to the young generation. This takes time. Young people have always been attracted to conflict - think of those who joined the French Foreign Legion or joined the fighting in Spain, etc, There is that element coming to effect. Let's face it, most young males haven't a bloody clue! I did not start to "see the light" of common-sense until I was 25! Young minds have way more access to all kinds of information these days via the web. Perhaps this needs to be controlled somehow? We love our freedoms, but at what cost? Censorship is a tough one, but anyone who posts such hate publically must suffer the full consequences for these actions, both here and abroad. One by one these dealers in death will be eradicated - has to happen. The young generation will finally get the message that ISIS is in fact uncool and a pack of douche-bag losers and all go back to their Playstation's and X-Box's (perhaps this issue of these "shoot-em-up" games needs addressing as well?).
I think the western powers and Russia needs to declare war on ISIS and get rid of this evil. What the hell do we have our armed forces for if not to carry out this sort of task? Syria and western Iraq needs to be occupied. Not so sure about Israel becoming involved. This will just upset the entire Arab world - mainly Iran and Saudi Arabia. Israel just needs to look after defending its own turf for now. Israel would indeed sort a lot of this shit out, but I fear this would escalate things in the region.
Got to say this is a great discussion! Other forums have locked down such discussions - so much for freedom of speech! We've all got different opinions and can discuss this most important topic in a civilised way. We're all armchair theorist/strategists/generals and can't do anything other than continue to pay our taxes and vote once every 3 years for what is hopefully the party that will better serve our country
I am for taking the fight directly to this most horrid enemy. I do wish our government success in clear thinking/decision making in this regard and our outstanding armed forces in the region every success in their appointed tasks. The time for pussy-footing around this issue is over!
