In a recent interview for the BBC Tony Blair had a much more measured contribution, while observing that at some point somebody’s boots may be needed on the ground to defeat IS. He made the point that it would be much better if it were not Western boots but he thought nothing should be ruled out.
The issue with IS is this. It must be contained militarily because of the suffering caused by its advance to those who do not embrace its cause. Terrible brutalities to the innocent are its hallmark. What it is trying to provoke is Western military intervention with ground troops because that will, it knows, embroil the West in another unwinnable war and rally many who ordinarily oppose it, to its colours. At all costs the West must restrict any intervention to air power used with precision, and humanitarian aid. It cannot, as politicians claim, be beaten, because above all it is not an entity but an idea. It is a bad idea based upon an unrecognisable interpretation of Islam, but even if you took back every square yard of its territory and killed every one of its fighters it would re-emerge in some other format, first as an insurgency, then as a force.
The only way to deal with this is to kill the idea and the only people who can do that are the Sunnis themselves. To give them space to do this will require the help of both Kurds and the Shias who feel equally threatened. These must provide the ground forces, but it is the moderate Sunnis who must win back the hearts, minds and faith of their own people who form the backbone of this bloodthirsty conglomeration. The West can supply weapons, intelligence and some special force mentoring as well as air power, but no more. To ensure the plan succeeds requires the cooperation of the coalition which John Kerry has put together, but with this proviso. The vital players in this drama are Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey and Assad’s Syria. They must be on board or the enterprise will fail. This will require the crossing of diplomatic barriers and a settling or deferring of differences, but without this, IS will carry on, however big the coalition of the others who are on America’s (and Britain’s) list of good guys.