Ok.....as am amateur historian, I will agree with your statement about learning from history.

I know from history that Islamic aggression is to conguer, and is not restricted to killing other muslims. Mohammed himself led a conquest simply to plunder and there are many other examples, which would be pertinent IF you believe that this is a MUSLIM undertaking and not a TERRORIST undertaking.

If, as you imply, this is a war conducted by ISLAM, then all bets are off on what we should do. If it is TERRORISTS and NOT associated with ISLAM at all, and instead, as you say, a MIMIC of ISLAM then we are fighting terrorists and there is only to learn from recent history. That recent history tells us what we are seeing. A 20th century barbaric attack on anyone who is not believing in what they believe in, which we are not sure now what that is. They use 20th century tools to kill....the internet, videos, etc. Not much learning from the past there.

My point is, speaking of what an Iraq did or did not do in 2011 does not help the conversation at all. IF we want to defeat ISIS, and we believe they are terrorists and not representatives of Islam, as you seem to imply, then what history are we to learn from ?

ISIS was formed a few years ago....If you are saying that Islamic terrorism is the foe, then I would agree and will tell you that what we learn from history about Islamic terrorism is this.....

They are driven by a belief that Sharia law is an all encompassing system of politics, etc. They believe that all entities of the state should merge under Sharia law. Islamic extremists believe they are obligated to install this form of governance in Muslim-majority territories, countries and, eventually, the entire world.

It is the "entire world" part that bothers me, and thus any recent historic event in Iraq teaches me nothing except their ability to grow and fill vacuums when they exist.

I am open to hear what you meant and what history I should be reading to further my understanding.

A few links, not quoted in my post but might be of interest to you...

The Evolution Of Islamic Terrorism - An Overview | Target America | FRONTLINE | PBS

Understanding Islamic Extremism

A review of Understanding Islamic Terrorism: The Islamic Doctrine of War. By Patrick Sookhdeo. » Bill Muehlenberg

I am sorry....I will end with a quote from the last link to better hope you understand.

"Indeed, traditional Muslims consider it blasphemous when non-Muslims rule over Muslims. While moderate Muslims today may not want to see Islam promoted by the edge of the sword, militant Muslims and terrorists certainly do, and they feel they have proper theological and historical justification for doing so."

"Consider also the Islamic understanding of peace. Peace is seen more as a negative, temporal and limited concept, while war, as defined above, is seen as a positive, ongoing and complete concept. Thus peace may be viewed as an interlude in jihad until all of the non-Muslim world submits to the house of Islam. Permanent peace in fact can only occur in the house of Islam. As long as some are outside that rule, real peace is not possible."