[iontheball]

Fat chance without boots on the ground. Ask any experienced military combat officer. The only way to rid the area of the vermin from the air is to drop a few ‘fat boys’ and eradicate everything.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Fat chance without boots on the ground."

Yes, you are correct. There needs to be boots on the ground, however it does not have to be American boots on the ground. The Peshmerga and a hopefully re-constituted Iraqi Army can be those boots on the ground. We should have been arming the Peshmerga right away because they are one of our truest allies in the region.

As the article states, ISIL's supply lines are stretched and do I have to state the obvious here. They're in a freakin' desert!! There's nowhere to hide so ISIL is in the open a lot of time and with correct on the ground intel (Peshmerga and Iraqi troops), we can hit large portions of ISIL in the open. We still need U.S. special forces troops as a rapid reaction force to be on the ground to rescue any downed pilots or to act on intel to take out top leaders of ISIL in towns and cities.

[varyouga]

“Fat chance without boots on the ground. Ask any experienced military combat officer. The only way to rid the area of the vermin from the air is to drop a few ‘fat boys’ and eradicate everything.”

With cheap automated drones, that reality may be no more.

Imagine solar or nuclear powered drones that fly forever and continuously scan every square inch for weapons and faces through all obstructions. Such a thing was never possible with a typical air crew.