For the first time ever, the Syrian regime bombed militants in Syria which were not part of the resistance in the civil war. They bombed IS militants who have created a caliphate in the lawless regions of Iraq and Syria.

Immediately, the news reports began to filter through. No longer was this Assad airstrikes or regime airstrikes – they were termed government airstrikes. Soon after, the wires began to report that the Syrian opposition were requesting similar airstrikes against the militants by the United States.

So, what can we take out of this from reading between the lines. The first is painfully obvious. While Bashar al Assad’s regime has widely been accused of crimes against humanity, the threat from IS is far worse. Worse for the people who live in the region and worse for the world as a whole. Forget sectarianism, IS targets disillusioned peoples who live in lawless states. Iraq, Syria and but two of them. Closer to our shores, just one hour away by plane lies Libya – a hotbed of unrest and infighting, which would be a perfect mustering ground for IS to permeate the North African coast, and even venture south in Mali and other places where Islamic radicalism is on the rise. The idea of a huge caliphate stretching from the edges of Eastern Europe to the western tip of North Africa might sound farfetched. But is it? At the height of its power, the Ottoman Empire was a caliphate that stretched all the way from modern day Eastern Europe, all the way round the North African coast.

What will stop IS? It is becoming abundantly clear that the West and the peoples of Arabia need to work together. And that brings us back to Syria. If the Syrian government (seeing as it is now being called that again) and the opposition continue to battle each other, then IS will make further gains. The two sides also need to involve the Kurdish Peshewerga in an attempt to stem the tide. It is all so painfully true. Despite their being a civil war in Syria, the only way to save anything is for all sides to put aside their (very big) differences and put up a common front against tyranny and oppression that beggars belief in the year 2014.

What can the west do? This is, of course, a conundrum of massive proportions. We have already seen that parachuting a democracy into a country does not work. Afghanistan and Iraq are clear reminders of this. The moment Western troops began to pull out was the moment that the IS was created. Ironically, they fete the tanks and vehicles and weapons they have seized out of what was left behind by Western troops. Libya has also shown us the painful convulsions that a post revolution country goes through in the hope of building a modern democratic society. In doing nothing, we let the world’s actions take their own course. It seems that a solution is not achievable, unless warring factions look at the bigger picture and fight together against a common and very dangerous and ruthless enemy.