Terrorist groups pushing a violent perversion of Islam like al Qaeda and the Islamic State could pose a threat to the Middle East for generations to come, according to author and adviser Kamran Bokhari.
"This is not something that will be solved in our lifetimes," Bokhari, vice president of Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs for Stratfor, an Austin-based geopolitical intelligence firm, told CTVNews.ca.
"This is a multi-generational struggle.”
Bokhari, also the author of "Political Islam in the Age of Democratization," said the fight is over the “soul of Islam” and the future of democracy in the Muslim World.
And with the Islamic State threatening to further destabilize Iraq, it’s a fight that continues to pull in Western forces.
"There is no way the U.S. and other Western allies can't get involved," he said.
The Iraqi government has asked the U.S. for help against the Islamic State, and the U.S. has responded with aerial bombing campaigns.
President Barack Obama gave a glimpse into the strategy the U.S. and its allies plan to use against the militant group last week, saying they aim to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the group. He is expected to outline more of the plan Wednesday.
The U.S. and Britain were also pulled into the fight after two American journalists -- James Foley Steven Sotloff -- were beheaded by an Islamic State fighter who may be a British citizen. Videos of the killings were then disseminated online as propaganda.
Bokhari actually traces the struggle against extremist groups in the Middle East back to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. With the sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims, the toppling of Saddam Hussein, and the civil war in Syria, terrorist groups thrive in the instability and become particularly attractive to youth.
Islamic State is the most extreme of the groups -- too extreme even for al Qaeda. Its main goal is to erase the borders of the different Muslim countries and create a singular caliphate. They are a Sunni jihadist group that wants authority over all Muslims across the world and uses brutal and barbaric tactics to achieve their goals.
"They are cutting and pasting things they know about the medieval past and putting it on a modern template," said Bokhari.
With about 10,000 armed fighters, the Islamic State currently controls an area about the size of Britain.
The U.S., a country that needs congressional approval to authorize military engagement, can continue to fight the war because the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) has no timeframe and has a broad definition of a terrorist.
But Bokhari said there is a solution. Groups like this won't thrive if people have freedom and choice.
"If we have democratization of the Muslim world that will allow for political and economic development where some groups will have to shut down their shops," he said. "Democracy has to be organic. Democracy has to come from within. The various shades of Muslims have to come together and find a way to agree to disagree."
The West must play a role, but a subtle one. "Muslims have to own this project of democratization."
It is something that seems to be a part of Obama's plan.
"We're going to have to find effective partners on the ground to push back against (Islamic State)," Obama said Friday. "And the moderate coalition there is one that we can work with… They have been to some degree outgunned and outmanned, and that's why it's important for us to work with our friends and allies to support them more effectively."
While the plan may seem like it has a chance at success, Bokhari warns it is far from a quick solution.
He said, "The end is not impossible, but the end is not near."
