Battle against IS is one of of containment

With US president Barack Obama saying his ultimate goal was to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State (IS) in both Iraq and Syria, may I assume he meant that the next US president will have to pick up the baton?

The fight against a terrorist organisation such as IS will inevitably be for the long term and more likely it will be one of containment.

Comparisons can be made with the never ending fight against the drugs trade, which is a one that doesn’t eradicate the supply of drugs but rather it contains it. In the same way we need to accept that the fight against Islamist terrorism may be one of perpetuity.