There is a reason why IS and OG AQ hate each other...it's actually not a new hate...it goes back to when IS was AQ in Iraq (and no, we didn't give them that name, they chose it.) and their leader, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, asked for resources and weapons to purge Iraq of Shia and Kurds and all the same people they're killing now. AQ told them no and to concentrate on US. That led to a bit of bickering that ended with Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin-Laden having Abu-Musab killed..indirectly, they tipped off US intelligence intentionally so we'd kill him for them. Since that time AQ in Iraq has slowly radicalized into IS unto the point where not only did they disregard direction on not attacking minorities in Iraq instead focusing on us, they took to attacking and killing other AQ-aligned insurgents for not being ideologically-pure enough and not also attacking religious minorities. In response, AQ recognized a different affiliate as the "only legitimate AQ affiliate in Syria and Iraq" and disowned them. That sent things around the bend and IS became actively hostile to the point of targeting leadership of that other affiliate for assassination.
(That's a fight we shouldn't get in the middle of as they might actually kill each other and solve a lot of problems for us.)
Beyond that, IS really is too anarchistic-radical as an Islamist group for other Islamist groups. For AQ, there is an agenda and compromises will be made to advance that agenda. (We may not want to reason with that...but we can reason with that.) For IS, there is only ideological purity...
Must we? (Go to war?) No.
Must we? (Pursue an agenda to curb their influence down to the point that cannot do harm?) That one is a probable qualified-yes. There are ways to combat a threat like IS that are not strictly military in nature. Designating any person funding them, no matter their connections to...say...the Saudi Royal Family, as subject to asset-seizure by OFAC would be a good start...it's not military, it doesn't put US troops in harm's way...and emptying their "checkbook" would do a good deal to curb them. They don't have a lot of ideological friends...nobody is going to give them anything they can't pay for. Dry up the well, so to speak, and they'll be dying faster than they can sustain.
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