"Yes, it’s complicated."
If it's that complicated for you, who's the simpleton?
You also wrote:
"Plus I’ve travelled extensively in the Middle East and North Africa and I’ve read lots of history of the region ... way back."
Wow! Then you should know better than the "a la Israel" statement.
"My own ancestors left Syria for this reason."
Thank God they knew better than staying and trying to "arm themselves in defensive positions, a la Israel." They saved your family by understanding that leaving at the time was the right thing to do. Those were the good times in Syria compared to what it is today.
"I don’t see a workable plan that is going to make Muslims stop killing a) each other and b) others when the get the chance."
You didn't think of the crucial c)...MAKING THE EFFORT TO KILL Americans all over the world in general and on American soil in particular.
"What is your plan?"
Item #1 in my plan will injure your humanitarian sensibility with its "simplicity!" Here goes that offensive word again.
1- raze Al Reqqa to the ground in hours by the B-52s. Don't worry about the left screaming"war crimes" and such nonsense. Once the head of the snake is gone, the word will be that
* أمريكا ذبحت القطة. You should be familiar with this ME expression. It means literally: America slaughtered the cat. That transmits the message: if America did that unfathomable deed, what would they do to the rest of us if we don't behave? Terrorists only respect brutal force, not empty threats. Until they taste it, they'll carry on their savagery It's a historical fact in the ME.
2- finishing ISIS off would be done with Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and other Arab ground troops augmented with our SF and coordinated air strikes of the coalition that supposedly exists now.
3- no Iranian deal! No $50 bil signing bonus.
4- outhouse growing a spine and no more instructions from ValJar.
So, what do you say? My plan or shall we sit it out, dump our allies who want to fight ISIS and fight the savages in our streets?
Until we achieve energy independence by overpowering the globull warming crowd and drill everywhere, we will need the ME!
It's just a "simple" fact of life!
You cannot kill them all. There are 1.6 Billion Muslims all over the globe, not just in the Middle East. Indonesia for example. (In contrast there are only 319 million of us, counting babies to elders).
How about we let them alone to kill each other? After all, they’ve been doing that for over 1000 years. They’re getting pretty good at it by now. It’s mostly Muslims killing other Muslims over interpretations of Islam. This is something for non-Muslims to die for? I don’t know about you but I don’t care about interpretations of Islam ... and I don’t want any American to die getting involved in that fight. That’s just stupid.
We should protect ourselves and of course kill anyone attempting to attack us. We should not import more Muslims over here because if even if only 10% of them are radical Islamists that will be bad enough.
Other than that, why is it our problem that they are fighting each other? Why should Americans lay down their lives to take sides in this religious war? And that is what we are doing ... taking sides.
Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and other Arab troops are not trustworthy. No Muslim army is. They can do it on their own without our help if they are so inclined.