BOOTS, and I dont mean the Chemists.

Armed intervention did make it worse! ISIS thrived in Iraq; in a power-vacuum in Iraq created by just the sort of armed intervention you are suggesting.

Of course I don’t think the current situation is acceptable but you are talking about imposing ‘peace’ over a vast region with deep sectarian divides, porous borders, no recognised government and one that is awash with weapons; that’s not a situation that sounds like it would have a positive outcome.

We tried hard in Iraq; it didn’t work. We tried very hard in Afghanistan; it didn’t work. We half-arsed tried in Libya; it didn’t work. So now we’re going to try exactly the same in Syria and Iraq and hope it will work?

Anyone who believes in personal liberty.

Do you think that the current situation is acceptable? Or preferable to general peace but with the odd suicide bomb?

The current situation is one of the worst possible outcomes IMO. I doubt armed intervention could actually make it any worse.

Who are the ‘we’ that has a moral obligation? Britain, the West, the World?

Your plan to ‘slaughter them all’ would probably produce the same results as we saw in Iraq; the Iraqi army, or ISIS in this case, would simply melt-away into the larger population centres and then carry out ambushes and suicide-bombings against the UN Peacekeepers and whatever sectarian enemy they perceived. Yes, it would probably be a lot like Iraq in that sense. And what then? Elections? Democracy? The sort of UN sponsored situation that led to ISIS in the first place.

I’m not suggesting we deal with it because it is easy, but because we have a moral obligation.

If I had my way, I would slaughter them all. I would then have the larger population centers of Syria and Iraq guarded by UN controlled peacekeepers, supplemented by other forces for dealing with any remote up rises. But any solution must be a long term one.

How do you suggest we deal with it?

And, no, of course I don’t condone rape and murder on an industrial scale, but thanks for asking!

The situation is different than dealing with a dictator and a more orthodox state but then why does dealing with an unorthodox ‘state’ such as ISIS make things any easier; it makes things far more difficult doesn’t it? ISIS grew-up out of the power-vacuum left by deposing the likes of Saddam Hussein so should we back such a dictator (like Assad) in future if it keeps the likes of ISIS under control?

So you condone the industrial scale rape of women in Syria and Iraq? Or at best, feel indifferent to it?

As I clearly said before, this situation is very different to Iraq, Libya etc. We aren’t dealing with one crackpot dictator, we are dealing with an ideology that represents the very worst aspects of human nature. And by letting them create this Islamic State, we are allowing them credibility.

How do you suggest we deal with it?

Like we got involved in Iraq and Afghanistan you mean? A fat lot of good that did us!

The only think Moslems seem to enjoy more than killing other Moslems is killing ‘infidels’; the last thing we want to do is put thousands of British troops into Syria, hamstring them with unworkable rules-of-engagement that ISIS would find laughable, and then let everybody else use the British Army as target practice!

And then there is the Russians; they support President Assad so should we back President Assad too? Or do we come into indirect, or direct, conflict with Russia in Syria?

Assad is fighting a whole host of ‘rebels’ including ISIS, but then a lot of these rebel groups are happily fighting each other as well as Assad; ISIS are responsible for many atrocities but then Assad isn’t exactly innocent either (have we forgotten the chemical-weapon attacks already)? And ISIS aren’t restricted to Syria but operate mainly in Iraq.

Syria is a mess, there is no easy way to sort it out, and if anybody thinks that the flood of refugees will be stemmed by a few thousand British troops putting their ‘boots on the ground’ then they are dreaming!

To be honest, I think it’s pretty sickening that we haven’t done already. We aren’t talking about toppling a dictator here, or securing oil. ISIS are every bit as bad as the Nazi’s.

We have the ability to do something about it, but we stand aside and let people be massacred, raped and tortured by these monsters.