Quote Originally Posted by Takeovers View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Neverna View Post
Yep, there are 3 ways.

1. Carpet bomb or nuke the whole region (inflicting a fair bit of collateral damage)
2. Send in a few hundred thousand ground troops and risk a few flag-draped body bags being sent home
3. Defeat the IS "ideology" on an moral, intellectual and religious basis making it unattractive for new recruits.

1 and 2 are not ways to defeat them, just drive them to another form of organization, and is already happening.

3. I argued before that is only achievable if the majority of Muslims get behind that cause. It cannot be done by non Muslims.
My tongue was firmly in my cheek with 1 and 2.

Surely no sane person would even consider number 1.

For number 2, I really doubt even a coalition of the willing would send in a few hundred thousand ground troops to Syria and Iraq. And you are right, it won't stop the 'movement', just disperse it for a while.

Only number 3 is possible. I agree that it cannot be done by non-Muslims. As it has to be done on an intellectual and religious basis, it has to come from a large group of serious and senior religious thinkers, scholars and academics. It's not something that can be done in a few hours over a pot of tea and a 15 second spot on the evening news, or some silly pronouncement on a piece of A4 paper posted on a blog somewhere. It has to be extremely well thought out, detailed and well referenced. That's what IS seem to have done. To counter them, the scholars have to be equally thorough. It will take time, but I think it's the only way. Maybe they are doing that right now. Who knows?