At some stage, a vigorous and viable response to the threat posed by the Islamic State was always going to be necessary. The jihadists' grisly beheading of American journalist James Foley has merely brought that forward.
It has also, however, highlighted the difficulties in deciding what form that reaction should take. Most problematically, there are increasing suggestions in the United States that some sort of accommodation should be struck with Syria's ruler, Bashar al-Assad, to defeat the Islamic State.
Just a year ago, after his use of chemical weapons against his own people, he was a tyrant whom the West was intent on toppling through a bombing campaign. Now, Mr Assad is viewed in some quarters as very much the lesser of two evils.
But embracing him would be folly. Mr Assad's regime is no less brutal now, and even if the Islamic State were extinguished, his continued presence would foster conflict. Indeed, the very rise of the jihadists was to some extent a cynical ploy by Mr Assad to get the support of most Syrians and the West. Until recently, his forces focused their assaults on non-Islamist rebels, allowing the group that eventually formed the Islamic State to grow rapidly from a marginalised offshoot of al-Qaeda.
In retrospect, it is apparent that the West's big mistake in Syria was not doing everything to support the moderate rebels when it had the chance. A similar error was made in Iraq with the failure to deter the Shia-leaning Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, from alienating the country's Sunni minority.