Did we not inadvertently give them a load of stuff when arming rebels to fight the Syrian government?

as I said, leave them to it, we're not The Empire anymore, time we accepted that fact.

Of course it's a direct threat. It may not right now, in August 2014, but if IS continue to take ground and absorb hardware and manpower, it will be before you know. Should they defeat the Iraqis and Kurds the entire area is suddenly under a huge threat, although as a Shia state Iran is a pretty considerable opponent (IS do not consider Shias to be 'true' Muslims).

Make no mistake, their goal is the re-establishment of the Caliphate under fundamentalist Sharia Law, and beyond that to establish their brand of Islam as far afield as they can. In many interviews they talk of the black flag over Downing St and the White House. Their policy is 'convert or die', no questions asked. How long before they look to take the West on directly?

Where do you think the motivation, and to varying degrees the planning and finance came from for 9/11, 7/7 and Madrid, as well as other attacks? And this lot make Al Qaeda look like those Widnes muppets invading the pitch last week.

No, eliminate them now while local forces can still put up a good fight, ideally aided by NATO air power.

And that's why I mentioned NATO, as well as Iran and Turkey.

The combined air power of NATO has more than enough punch to destroy or severely weaken IS. That then allows the Kurds, Iraqia, Syrians and even Lebanese to sweep up and wipe them from the face of the earth. The West could put 'advisors' on the ground - normally SF from the US and UK, but it's for the locals to actually finish the job.

Where I would like to see the UK take the lead is with Cameron saying "enough is enough", and committing considerable RAF assets to destroying IS. I have little doubt many other NATO countries would follow suit.

I believe the majority of their weapons are materiel captured from Syria and from when the Iraqi army abandoned their posts en masse, including a lot of US hardware.

A quick search tells me their haul includes SA-7 and Stinger surface-to-air missiles, M79 Osa, HJ-8 and AT-4 Spigot anti-tank weapons, Type 59 field guns and 52 M198 howitzers, 1,500 Humvees, T-54/55 and T-72 main battle tanks, M117 armoured cars, truck mounted DShK guns, ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers, 4,000 PKC machine guns and at least one Scud missile.

Meanwhile the Kurds have little beyond light weapons. One chap on the news last night looked like he was armed with frigging musket.

That said, I'm sure their are weapons manufacturers or traders who would have no problem selling to anyone wielding a huge wad of cash.

and why should we?

did they donate to the disaster appeal after the fl... oh, sorry, there wasn't one.

let them deal with their own politics

Who are ' them ' and what ' politics ' are you referring to?

Bloody 'ell, that's a fair haul.

This is sunni Muslims v shia muslims and non muslims, which is why most of the arab states like Saudi and Qatar are funding them. what these dopey fooking countries don't understand is that if IS by some miracle do take over Iraq they'll be coming for Saudi arabia next, and and then Qatar, UAE etc. Having experienced the Saudi military personally they will do what the iraqi army did, down guns and run away. The al saud family are only in charge because they let the clerics have free control on the population, which is why they have so many spies everywhere among the population and military.

What on earth were you searching for?

I dunno what Cronus was searching for, but AFAIK it is illegal to have snuff images of kids on your PC and I seem to have heard the "merely research" defence before somewhere

There's a section for this on p*rnhub

Funny how the man charged with bringing peace to the Middle East does a disappearing act every time more trouble breaks out. What are you doing Tony?

Whilst I agree with every point raised by Cronius, there is a part of me that thinks, why bloody us again? Our defence industry has made billions selling top grade military kit to the Saudis, UAE, Qatar etc.

There's more than enough there for those Arabs to get off their s and take care of the problem the whole region is facing.

And has anyone heard one squeak of condemnation from any Muslim Authority here in the UK? I asked a couple of Asian friends, "Why the silence?" The reply was an eye opener...."They (ISIS) are already amongst us.....they are actively recruiting our young men....they know where we live! That's why we're saying nowt!"

And of course, there are a good few hundred Brits out there in the ISIS ranks that will be looking to come home sometime.

Deal with it now, even if that means boots on the ground as part of a UN backed coalition. Otherwise,the consequences could be horrendous.

Maybe if the 3 million or so Iraqi soldiers didnt run from the initial 800 ISIS, the world wouldnt be in this predicament.

'murica and the UK have spent $2trillion trying to rebuild Iraq, for some rogues in black masks to come take it and all the equipment/cash. Yep, that was worth it.

Given the amount of american oil companies that reside in Kurdistan, was it really any co incidence 'murica got involved when ISIS were 25 miles from it?

Regards

King James