Wounded Goose,

Thanks so much for that - if Killarney reads it properly, then it saves me a couple of posts.

Yes indeed, it is a complicated set of situations, but something that no country - certainly not the US - can ignore. Whether it actually has solutions, is very difficult to say. I suspect not, at least not with the present configuration of competing forces.

The US has a very delicate task of calibration ahead, and for a very long time - to degrade ISIS, yes; but not to destroy it, because that, among many other factors, would open up all of Syria to Assad's forces against the very weak 'democratic' forces of the FSA. That and the defeat of ISIS would be likely to encourage the Saudis (and the Turks) to intervene directly, and that in turn would encourage the Iranians to get even more involved, and then it could be on. The Saudis would call on their Pakistani allies, with nuclear weapons, and Iran would call on their Indian allies, with nuclear weapons, and away we go.

Meanwhile, the Kurds would go all-out for a separate Kurdistan, against all four countries in the region, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey.

So Obama has to keep a lid on it as much as he is able, but not to push the situation to a denouement, for a long time yet.

Unless you have a better idea ?

Cheers :)

Joe