What makes Obama and Cameron (and for that matter, most of the West) think that ISIS in Iraq/Syria can be defeated?

The West has been fighting against various flavors of Islamic terror groups since the 1940s, and it got worse with the Palestinian hijackings and murders in the 1970s.

Then there was Fatah, PFLP, al-Qaeda in the 1990s and 2001, and various offshoots of al-Qaeda since. Now the enemy of the week is ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Basically during the last 50 years, the West has been utterly unsuccessful at eradicating Islamic terrorist groups. Sure, al-Qaeda was weakened, but they’re still there beheading people in Egypt.

So what makes Obama and Cameron and Merkel and the other Western leaders confident that ISIS can be defeated? let’s be clear – I am no fan of ISIS, but are the politicians being remotely realistic?