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Sticking to our principles might mean that more people die and I find that a hard pill to swallow.
If you're already proposing killing people, which people dying becomes a bitter pill to swallow? It feels as if you're buying into the us and them narrative which is basically coming out of organisations like ISIS and the nazi-ish asshats like EDL, BNP, Tory Party etc. Because even if there really is an us (The West) and them (ISIS etc) then there's also all the other people in the world such as the Syrians and the Yadzidi and the Kurds who all of the above want to treat as not our problem and not welcome. Then there's the peripheral, and perhaps not so peripheral, regions such as North Africa, Indonesia, the Caucasus, the Arabic nations, even places like the disputed Kashmir. They're all impacted by our actions and decisions. Frankly this involves the whole world. There's too many identities for an us and them that functions in any recognisable sense.
But the real bottom line is that people are going to continue to die in this conflict in huge numbers. I honestly believe that more people would die if we started a wholesale slaughter of anyone in, and by necessity connected to ISIS. Alas I can't make any promises, it's just a theory. When we consider how we tackle this conflict, as we absolutely must, we have to resolve ourselves to the fact that people will die. What then becomes important is deciding the reasons why people will die and who we will try to keep alive and how.
The_Seldom_Killer-
Another good point but you've just said more eloquently what I was perhaps trying to say - that sticking to our (globally speaking) principals will probably mean more death and that's the cost.
It was naive of me to focus on the path of least destruction when that means essentially being evil in these circumstances.
Well_is_it
Yeah, I totally agree. It's more that I'm just struggling to think of a way through this that involves the least amount of death. Sticking to our principles might mean that more people die and I find that a hard pill to swallow.
I hope you don't think I'm some blood thirsty mental - I agree with everything you just said. It's just a very tough test of one's principals but thanks for bringing it back down to reality.