What a sobering reality check - Blair on scale of extremism

COMING, as it does, days after the atrocities in Brussels, and months after the Paris outrages andthe bombing campaign in Turkey and yesterday’s outrage in Lahore the defeat of IS at Palmyra can be hailed as a victory, hopefully the first of many against Islamic extremism.

The IS retreat came after an assault from Syrian government forces backed by Russian airstrikes. It has been reported that 400 IS fighters were killed, and that this represents the biggest single defeat for the group since it declared a caliphate in areas of Syria and Iraq under its control in 2014.

The recapture of the city is very welcome, but the achievement is tempered by the very sobering warning from Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair published yesterday.

Mr Blair, still excoriated because he sent ground forces to Iraq and Afghanistan, has warned that western allies must be prepared to send ground troops to defeat IS, or risk attacks in Europe of “such size and horror” that draconian security measures would follow. He also warned of the scale of the problem, suggesting we have not grasped what is in play. “The adherents of this view of Islam are numbered in many millions... This ideology is not interested in coexistence. It does not seek dialogue but dominance.”

This position is so contrary to our views and hopes that we may shy away from it and its harder implications. Sadly, Brussels, Paris and Ankara make that impossible.