That's what happens when you trust crazy people to live in harmony. Does anyone really think that the U.S., UK or NATO would drop bombs on random places without provacation?

Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet along its border today.

Clearly a big negative in this attack IS business is that Israel is going to be highly opportunistic.

What I couldn't understand is why they used F-22 raptors in the second phase of the attack, one of the reporters asked that question at the press conference and got a very vague evasive answer from the General.

The F-22 is an air superiority fighter, why on Earth were they using it in a ground attack role? And they're based in the US and Japan as I recall, why fly them all that way?

Just seems to me like they wanted to show off. Massive waste of money.

Could not have said it better for all of us

Don't think that it is being used in the ground attack role like a Stuka or a 1944 Typhoon. It is probably armed with laser guided missiles that instead of shooting down other aircraft with, it places squarely through the roof of the appropriate tent! I would guess it has been thrown into the mix so Lockheed can include the phrase "combat proven" in it's F-22 sales brochure! Plus flying at Mach 2 with a couple of refueling pit stops on the way they could easily take off from Japan after breakfast, do the dirty and easily be home for tiffin.
Another example of the US armed forces motto "all the gear, no idea".

It's probably because the Syrian military has at this stage only acquiesced to the attacks and not explicitly supported the action. Considering that some of this will take place over Syria there is a risk that Syria will become a combatant and then the USAF will need as sophisticated a plane as it has available.

The Syrian airforce has been staying out of the way for the last 2 days while US and Arab coalition forces have been bombing the daylights out of targets in Syria with all sorts of warplanes and ship launched cruise missiles. According to Swedish reporter JoMa Sommarstrom last night Kurdish forces dislodged ISIL fighters from the Kobani area of Ayn-al-Arab in Syria just over the Turkish border after heavy fighting but capturing territory and holding it are two different things - separating combatants from civilians requires boots on the ground.

It's going to be a long conflict. At best I think that the West can weaken the "network of death" but as Isis shows it will transform into something else somewhere else.

If we do put boots otg then God help anyone who gets captured, I can't see them acting in a civilised manner toward captured western forces personnel

By executing up to 250 Syrian soldiers at once and possibly 1700 captured Iraqi soldiers during their advance they've made that clear. Killing civilians who refuse to convert also sends a message. It's more personal than turning people into red mist with tons of explosives but other than that dead is dead. I suppose it's largely a matter of perspective and degree.

France won't take this latest atrocity lying down. France will go, quite rightly, ballistic. The headline today on one of the papers was "Executed for Being French" really bad.

Rightly so. Poor guy had only been in Algeria one day and loved North African culture.

Were was this and who? I'm working and on foot today so not seen this.

François Hollande: Hervé Gourdel's beheading will strengthen France's determination to fight Isis – video | World news | The Guardian