My earlier post posited not caring, let the civil war continue, hand it over to the &quot;nicest&quot; Sunni group we can live with, give it to Assad - none of those outcomes involve a terror exporting aspirant state controlling territory. If we temporarily control a swathe of territory it puts in a position to make a bargain with someone.<p>I&#x27;m not saying it is good, but is it better than a pretty shitty situation. Do the other groups regularly crucify civilians and hurl homosexuals off buildings?
If we acknowledge we can&#x27;t impose a new government can we create a new normal whereby we smack groups which get out of line but otherwise stay out of the way. It&#x27;s actually fairly similar to the old Roman system on the outskirts, and the same approach the British initially adopted in the early days of Empire. It&#x27;s what the Americans sort of did in Afghanistan before the invasion of Iraq effectively dragged them into a civil war.