IS terror

I agree with Keith Glover 
(Letters, 29 June) that we should use our armed forces to address the Islamic State problem, but not in the way he suggests, which was the George W Bush solution.

Face it squarely: the West is already defeated by IS and there are many reasons for this.

An indigenous enemy cannot be beaten militarily and IS is effectively fighting on its own land.

It has no central leadership, giving it the tactical advantages of all guerrillas. It has the overwhelming support of a vast single ideology. It is encroaching inexorably into Europe, unintentionally aided by the desperate peoples of North Africa.

We should turn our backs on another unwinnable war in favour of defending our own country, using our own armed forces.

Currently, our deterrence methods have been wholly passive and in the hands of the police because we regard would-be terrorists as criminals. They are not criminals; they are enemies.

Counter-terrorism should be in the hands of the armed forces, providing muscular, proactive deterrence using courts martial and military prisons and having the power to repatriate without recourse to any other authority.

Peter Laidlaw

Bramdean Rise

Edinburgh

This appalling group, IS, thrives on the publicity its barbarity generates. It is not representative of Islam and it is not a state.

It would be a small step forward if the media stopped dignifying it with the title IS and called it “Daesh” (one who crushes underfoot) as its opponents call it.

Douglas Turner

Derby Street

Edinburgh