I salute our Commander-in Chief for not trying to conquer the world...

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. Avoiding civilian casualties is not an option.

Unless, and possibly even if, the US acts on a scale that will almost certainly cause moderate numbers of civilian casualties in the short term and potentially larger numbers in the long term, ISIS will murder large numbers of civilians.

All the USA can do is either

a) try to select a course of action that minimises the number of civilian casualties.
b) try to select a course of action that minimises the number of civilian casualties if causes.


I think that a) is probably the right thing to aim for, but b) is not absurd - arguably it's more important not to kill than to save lives. But there is no cause of action available whose likely outcome is not appalling, as far as I can see.