McGrath, you may be right. Islamic extremism is here to stay, no doubt. If it's not Al Qaeda, its Daesh, and if it's not them, it's someone else. But currently you have a sovereign state, or at least an army that has declared a significant amount of geography part of its state, that is openly waging war against neighboring states in the Middle East, and a terrorist guerrilla war in the rest of the world. The DAESH state is a training ground for misfits throughout the world in how to inflict death on innocent civilians, and it represents a tangible embodiment of this mystical Caliphate that is motivating these people.

Their defeat and the reincorporation of the DAESH state into the states of Iraq and Syria will at least reduce the jihadists to an underground movement.

Does the Arab Spring seem like a mass delusion, or not? The thought that moderates in Libya, Egypt, and Syria could establish sectarian constitutional governments without interference from Radical Islamists seems like a total pipe dream in light of the nightmares that have followed. Were the brutal strongmen like Khadafi, Assad, Mubarak and Hussein agents of relative stability? It is painful to entertain such a cynical thought, but difficult to dismiss it.