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Even the majority of the Sunnis have grown tired of foreign terrorists operating in Iraq.

Many Sunnis, who are still stuck in the Saddam era mindset and believe Iraq belongs to them, are trying to prevent a new country from developing at all.

They have involved co-operation between the Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda operatives on training and combined operations regarding bomb making and chemical and biological weapons.

Undoubtedly, there are members of the former regime that are cooperating in some fashion and then there are extremists that are within Iraq that are cooperating with them.

These Sunni Arabs in places like al Anbar province in Iraq, where I served back in 2007, if they see Iran as the dominant power, a Shiite country, they're going to be much more likely to want to join ISIS.

The Iraqis have become invested in their nationhood.

Indeed, by refusing to tackle Assad's brutality, we may actively alienate more of the Sunni population, driving them towards ISIS.

Syria is attracting a lot more Westerners than the Iraq War ever did because it's the perfect Sunni jihad.

There have been linkages between the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda going back more or less a decade.

The rise of ISIS in Iraq is a wider threat to the stability of the Middle East and the West than many realise.