The smart way to bomb ISIS

Harassment: One plausible approach to a more limited American intervention would be to focus on interdicting ISIS movements around its territories rather than driving it out of the cities (with a high risk of civilian casualties) or turning it back at the front lines. We’re well-equipped for this. Long-loitering drones can take their time in identifying smaller targets and waiting for the right moment to strike. Our advanced signals intelligence and battle-management systems like the JSTARS can help us spot larger movements and direct attack aircraft to them. ISIS forces look more like a conventional state military than the folks we’ve been fighting for most of the war on terror, and it’s conventional militaries that we’re good at fighting. Of course, they’d quickly become less brazen when the bombs started falling, and we might have fewer easy targets. But they’d be forced to change their habits and move more cautiously, and they’d have more trouble transferring forces between Iraq and Syria. This would make them more vulnerable to forces on the ground.

Needless to say, we’d want to remember that harassing ISIS is a means, not an end, and recognize the risk of being slowly drawn into an indefinite air war. But the mere threat of American airstrikes would force ISIS to change tactics.