Joe
I agree, but I think the problem you identify is common to all forms of fundamentalism: religious, political and other

And it's a rapidly moving situation: now that the reactionaries have captured Ramadi and butchered whoever they feel like there, and forced half a million people to flee in panic to Baghdad, what might be the impact on the Iraqi government ?

Is it approaching a tipping point, where the catastrophes become too much, where the fascists rapidly move towards Baghdad, amidst all the confusion, and the government pisses off to Iran ? When southern (i.e. south of Kurdistan) Iraq falls to the fascists ?

Obviously, if that happens, Iran will intervene, big-time. And, given the current hassles in Yemen, Saudi Arabia will then intervene obliquely, indirectly, implicitly, on the side of ISIS, and against Iran. Pakistan will launch a series of the usual street outrages, flags being burnt, women being stoned, buses burnt, etc., etc., and in its rag-tag way, get stuck into Iran from the east.

India is an ally of Iran's, so what might happen if one nuclear power gets stuck into another ? Each believing that the afterlife is quite attractive, all things considered: you get either a better life or 72 virgins: sweet, either way. So bring it on.

We live in a world of idiots. So hunker down, stock up on baked beans, pasta and tomato paste, and wait it out. I recommend a hundred casks of Sovereign Point and the complete works of Salman Rushdie, Arthur Upfield, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Fernand Braudel, and Garrison Keilor.

Joe

Judea-Christian secular mechanisation is the tried and true effective Western way of war. Its safe and value free.

No-one questions the morals-politics or religion of a Reaper's Hellfire or an F/A-18s laser guided bomb. They may terrify people who are targets, or are near the target, but that doesn't count right? Such a question can be neatly excluded from this thread.

The oil in Iraq and a little bit in Syria is a nice secular, objective we can defend-depend on :)

Also those ungrateful Saudis (with alot of oil) need defending - while many of those Saudis fund and even provide much of the Sunni manpower for IS/ISIS/ISIL.

Conservative Hippie, there are no redeeming factors in Isis, there are no redeeming factors with the Japanese in WW11, what I try to point out is that this years hate maybe next years love, having lived through the end of WW11 the Japanese were a hated race by nearly all Australians, loved by most now, Isis is now hated like the Japanese in WW11, I do not agree with them at all, like the Japanese at that time.
Iran " Axis of Evil" had Julie Bishop sucking up recently to them for any benefit we may require, Saudi Arabia a friend of the USA today if required could change its tune at any time in the future,or be on both sides at the same time, we are never told the truth, only what they want us to know, this is a problem with the whole world now, blame this or blame that but it may not be the correct blame which only governments know, not us minions.

Ojnab, not a great example, the Japanese are civilised people for one thing, not sub human savages like Arabs so the Japs are a lot easier to like.
Japanese Imperialism only lasted from about 1937 until 1942 and the Japanese cities were bombed flat, showered with incendiaries and then finally two nuclear weapons were dropped. The Japanese leaders saw that the writing was on the wall and surrendered, they had to submit totally to allied demands, pay something like $60 billion(1951 dollars) in compensation and their country is still occupied by the U.S to this day.
The damage done to the world by Islam in 1400 years of relentless hostility is incalculable,I mean how do you make reparations for Tamerlane killing 5% of the world's population? Who pays reparations to the Indians for their 26 million dead or for the near extermination of the Armenians in the 7th century? How do you calculate the value of the damage done to Nineveh? What if they flatten Leptis Magna and Palmyra? What if they get into Petra or Giza?

Dear Jay,

<<The damage done to the world by Islam in 1400 years of relentless hostility is incalculable>>

That damage is indeed horrific, but what makes you believe that it was done by Islam rather than by blood-thirsty Arab tribes who, if there weren't Islam would find some other banner?

While the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, died in the year 632, according to Robert Spencer nobody heard about Islam or the Koran until the 790's. During that period the Arab tribes expanded from Medina and conquered many lands, but while there are many records of that by the conquered, none mentions "Islam", "Muslim", "Koran", "Muhammad", etc. That means that the Arabs did what they did before inventing the Koran, continue to do what they do, falsely in the name of Muhammad who rolls in his grave; and would continue to behave that way even if Islam was somehow forgotten.