There is no doubt that religious wars, or wars between factions of one religion, generate a sickening level of atrocities and genocide. Christianity is not immune from these horrors as history sadly records. There is no doubt either that many Islamic State fighters have indulged in horrific brutalities, graphically described by those fortunate enough to make an escape. This does not, however, mean that the Islamic State is a gang of marauding bandits or unruly mobs of driven young men seeking martyrdom and a fast track to heaven.
This is a highly organised, well disciplined political/military force founded on a religious conviction and a political ambition, well funded by friends and an oil producer in its own right from captured oil fields. Its army is properly organised and commanded, with access to heavy weapons and much captured materiel of war. This is why it has advanced so quickly and why it now controls a large section of both Syria and Iraq.
It also has a good deal of support among Gulf states allied to the West and, even more important, strong support from the Sunni populations in the areas which have now fallen under its control. It is not a here today and gone tomorrow aberration; tomorrow it will still be there. Almost everybody concerned with stability and peace in the Middle East sees the Islamic State as the number one problem. In order to solve that problem, and the human displacements and suffering underscore the need for this, the Islamic State must be seen as part of the solution.
It may be possible to contain its advance and it will be necessary to recover and secure certain strategic installations, but it will not be possible to inflict a military defeat upon it on such a scale as to make it disappear. Neither Syria nor Iraq has the capacity to do this and neither is any longer an intact and functioning country. Iraq does not even have an effective government; just a hope it may get one.
The moment has now come to wind up the ill starred Sykes Picot map of divided colonial spoils and redraw boundaries which recognise reality and tribal history. There will have to be one country for a Shia majority, one for Sunni and recognition of the Kurdish region as a state. The Sunni element will straddle parts of the current Iraq and Syria. The Alawites will end up controlling a good deal less of Syria than they are used to, but with everyone else, must come away, from any agreement which can last, with a future worth working for which is peaceful. There is no point in subjugating anyone in such a settlement, because triumphalism will only beget insurgency. And there has been enough of that.
