How can ISIS, Boko Horam?, Al Quida be stopped?
My solution (be forewarned, it's not a pretty or "nice" one).
They can never be stopped (hard to kill an idea or belief) but they can be mitigated by reducing their ability to act. FFS Daesh actually
pay their fighters, totally unprecedented in the fundamentalist dickhead way of doing things. And no, democracy in the region is not the solution. The problem in Syria is that the Assad regime is overwhelmingly composed of Alawites, a religious minority (10% of the population) that nonetheless has maneuvered their way into all the top military, intelligence and political spheres of Syria over the past 50 years. They've always known that if they lose there'll be no peaceful transition - they'll be genocided out of existence by the majority Sunni population. That's why they're fighting so viciously. So what's the solution? Support Secular dictatorships. Waaaah they're not nice and they're mean to people - I wonder if the average Libyan or Iraqi would prefer to see them back now that Gaddafi and Hussein have been replaced by anarchic power vacuums of the sort of which IS seem to thrive in?
What's the point I'm trying to make? I'm not entirely sure anymore but given the nature of the middle east (lots of lines drawn in the sand 100 years ago that have thrown lots of groups together who don't traditionally play nicely) secular dictators who don't take sides and slam a lid on any dissent seem to work well. Nice? No. Effective? So far, yes.
Good news is Russian involvement in Syria is probably going to turn what would've been a 20 year civil war into one where a cease-fire may well come about in 2016. Lines in the sand will probably have to be re-drawn (Kurdistan?) but it should solve a lot of the unrest and displacement from the region that is rippling across the world atm.