It should be declared as a war, then commit to winning it.
You can pontificate about these casualties or those casualties but the longer we dither the longer it will drag on and the greater the casualties. No it should never have been started BUT it has and by throwing small amounts of troops and hardware at ISIS then this will drag on and on and on ! In the end one side has to win that's what always happens and my thoughts are commit the troops and hardware and settle it once and for all. Civilians have and will always be caught in wars, nothing we can do will change that once the blood letting begin. All we can do now is finish it as quickly as possible.
Now let the insults and sarcasm begin regarding my post.

Pardon me if this is insulting but this:

doesn't stand up. Winning a war requires a defined enemy to fight against. There's no definable enemy in ISIS; what there is a number of individuals or small groups sharing a similar ideology; one of destruction in the west in general and in France in particular. They don't act in concert, no one is in charge and they don't have a supply chain of sophisticated weapons. They're nationals of the countries they seek to destroy rather than of one that can be bombed.

The battle is for the hearts and minds of the potential terrorists, or those who could betray them, not for territory.

What's happening now with Islamic terrorism does seem analogous to the IRA and "the troubles". Slightly different religious and political motivations between the two movements, but they share primal hatered of their 'enemy'.

There is a huge difference, one is deliberate killing of innocent people the other is accidental whilst trying to stop ISIL committing mass murder.

The methodology might be different, the end result is the same.... Death to innocent people and children.

You are pretty quick to jump on the morbid bus of threads that come along when a terrorist attack happens in western civilisation ..

I have a cynical view of the 'Troubles', one that many would consider the ravings of a madman, but one I'll share anyway.
It has been my view for many years during and since that the struggle which happened in N Ireland was a carefully controlled conflict.
The IRA must have understood that a united Ireland was not possible and as such their aim was simply one of showing the flag and being seen to maintain the struggle, ie keep it on the boil.
The UK government and the Unionists must have understood that an escalated struggle might very well unleash a more destructive war with unpredictable results.
The Irish government was happy to accomodate the IRA (although at arms length) but not enough to fully embrace the concept of a united Ireland with the possibility of a full scale Unionist uprising always a possibility.
In short, politicians of all sides were content to keep the conflict limited and this was enabled simply because not enough people were being killed. In other words, it is my view that all sides connived until such time as it became politically possible to enter into some kind of agreement.

I do not think that this will be the same with IS and the west.

Well all I know is back in the 1980s I got to spend a Sunday looking through a pile of rubble for bodies after the IRA blew up the building, I don't think there was much conniving going on. Fortunately the building was empty but they couldn't have known that for certain.

Anyway I'm not sure if this lunatic in Japan qualifies for this thread, but holy cow, can we just go a few days without some sort of outrage? I'm not sure if it's just gotten worse lately or if the media are reporting it more, maybe both but it's got to a point now where you can't even pay attention. Like, shopping mall in Kabul blown up, dozens dead, hundreds injured and now over to our coverage of the RNC.

Bombs! Guns! Trucks! Knives! Machetes! Carnage! Lights! Cameras!

I was watching the Bastille Day ceremonies on TV5 and it was wall-to-wall with Hollande meeting family members from the Paris attack and then endless interviews with people who work in counter-terrorism going on about how they do their jobs and here is all our fantastic equipment, etc. Little did they know...

I'm not saying that everyone sat around a table and agreed to a limited war in N Ireland, what I am suggesting is that noone actively sought to either end the conflict or to escalate it, they appeared to be satisfied with an unsatisfactory status quo, hence my assertion that not enough people were being killed to force a change. It's a cold blooded view, but one understood by a political class that understood that to move from the head of the pin could possibly result in their failure and they were content to defer a solution to others.
If I'm correct in my assertion, then you may understand why I hold politicians in such low regard.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.ibti...?client=safari

This was actually reported on c panic 24 news, this is another reason why this should all end and we should consolidate all our Gods into one big God and just live in peace and harmony.

Allah?

Close. It sounds similar to the one thing to worship.

The Dollar.

Now we're thinking:

"Al-Jesu-llar" and have a symbol like ~$£~

Close one !!

Aaron Driver, terror threat suspect, killed in confrontation with police - CBC News - Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News

CBC News has confirmed that Aaron Driver, a suspect being sought in connection with a terror threat, has been killed in a confrontation with police in Strathroy, Ont.

You might want to change that to "first one".

I'll bet you any money you want that somewhere in Canada will get a European-style incident or two before long.

And I'll bet you any money you want that nowhere in Canada or in Europe will get an Aleppo-style incident any time soon.