PRESIDENT OBAMA came in for a lot of ridicule when he said that he had "no strategy yet" to deal with Islamic State (IS).

It now seems he has been bounced into taking ill-advised military action on the basis that "we can't just do nothing".

But doing nothing is always better than doing anything which makes matters worse.

US and British air strikes have boosted recruitment for IS, and facilitated an alliance between IS and former bitter rivals, the al Qaeda-sponsored Jabhat al-Nusra.

Air strikes can only slow the advance of IS forces by attacking them in the open. Any attempt to use bombs or drones to dislodge them from the towns and villages they have occupied would cause heavy civilian casualties, driving many more to join the ranks of IS.

Only an Arab-led effort can defeat IS.

Sunnis and Shias must be united against a common enemy which promises only oppression and violence.

There also has to be a political solution to the Syrian civil war. IS is a greater threat to the Assad regime than the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, but now we are doing Assad a favour by bombing it.

Obama and Cameron are aware of all this, acknowledging that bombing alone will not stop IS. But further diplomatic progress was needed before there could be any hope of success for the air strikes.

To begin bombing first, hoping that everything else will fall into place later, is recklessly optimistic.

Pete Winstanley, Durham.