Mostafa et al
A number of posters on here are drawing dodgy comparisons between ISIL/ISIS/IS (or whatever the 7th century tribute act is called this week) and the IRA. As someone who grew up in NI and served there as well as Iraq and Afghanistan I just don't think that is valid.
Evil though many of the provos were, they were never anywhere near the same league as these animals. The IRA were guilty of dreadful atrocities. However the "dirty war" was a fact. There were equally evil atrocities committed by the loyalist paramilitaries (Shankill Butchers anyone?), not to mention illegal killings committed, certainly in the early days, by shady army units and the 'B Specials'.
Nonetheless it is utterly gauling to see players back on the streets who should have remained locked up for decades, particularly for friends/family/colleagues of their victims. It was a high price to pay, but a price that bought a greater good and peace for a community that absolutely needed it. I just hope that the NI politicians can continue to hold it together (rightly recently branded by Col Tim Collins as "the worst politicians on the planet")....
The point is that awful as the NI paramilitaries were/are, there was always enough reason in them to hold out hope of a settlement, but only after they had been fought to a stalemate. I think IS are singular in their utter lack of potential for redemption or reason. I have just watched a harrowing report on the BBC about the final days of poor Kayla Mueller, the American hostage repeatedly raped then murdered by the big man himself, Abu Baker Al Baghdadi. The self-proclaimed caliph is clearly leading from the front, inciting his troops to rape and slaughter their way to the caliphate. There will never be negotiation or rapprochement with these scumbags. We simply need to kill them in large numbers. Until we truly grasp that nettle, the situation will just get worse and worse.
One day we may be able to reach a distasteful but workable settlement with evil f***ers like the Taliban or Assad (albeit giving undesirable advantage to the ISI and Putin respectively), but there is only one answer to IS. let's get on with it and limit the final toll on the poor Syrians and Iraqi's, limit the terrorist threat in our own countries and stabilise the refugee crisis that will affect Europe and the Levant for years to come.