Fighting Isis: David Cameron should not delude himself about the limits of Western power in the Middle East

The Government has been agitating for a gear change in terms of our military role in the Middle East long before David Cameron announced that defence strategy would now focus more clearly on countering Isis. A consensus has grown that, insofar as air attacks are having any effect on its advance, confining strikes to Iraq is illogical when Iraq is not Isis’s operational hub. The Defence Minister, Michael Fallon, clarified this shift on 2 July when he said it was clear that Isis had to be defeated in both Syria and Iraq because it was “organised and directed and administered from Syria”.