Is bombing the s*** out of ISIS a strategy?

[EarlG]

Source: CNN

Trump pledged in September that on his first day in office he would issue his generals with a simple instruction: "They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS."

His premise is that the US-led coalition simply isn't ruthless enough. In an interview with Fox News in September, Trump said: "We have to lead for a change because we are not knocking them. We're hitting them every once in a while, we're hitting them in certain places, we're being very gentle about it."

But promises made in the heat of a campaign are often tempered by reality later. The complexities of tackling ISIS in two countries amid an array of competing parties do not give themselves easily to campaign slogans.

As of November 2, the US and its coalition partners had conducted a total of 15,959 strikes (10,310 in Iraq and 5,649 conducted in Syria), according to figures from the coalition. There have also been hundreds of airstrikes against ISIS in Libya since August. US commanders insist the air campaign has been remorseless and aggressive, but also in accordance with international law, calibrated to avoid civilian casualties.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/15/middleeast/donald-trump-isis-strategy/

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. It's a great slogan.

Tactically, it's hard to bomb the shit out of ISIS without bombing the shit out of masses of innocents who ISIS is embedded with. The civilian death count would be hard to sell as a positive outcome. The rest of the world might frown upon that result.

So, no, I don't think it's a winning strategy.

[randome]

2. Just like the Mexican Wall, just like doing away w Medicare, just like replacing Obamacare on Day 1.

None of this is going to happen but especially we're not going to 'bomb the shit' out of anyone.

And what happened about that promise to convene the generals to come up with an ironclad plan within 30 days? Haven't heard anything about that, have we?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[ManiacJoe]

3. A strategy? Yes. A good strategy? No.

To militarily defeat ISIS requires a ground war.
Since ISIS is not directly effecting the USA, the American general public would rather have the locals fighting the ground war while the USA provides air support (or other less risky support).