They have no plan, only impulse.
They have no strategy, only tasks.
They have no goals beyond the next election.
They have no guilt over their actions, because they are always right.
The President of the United States is Moslem and supports the ISIS effort. He allowed the pinprick airstrikes because it became politically impossible to not do them. I fully believe the air strikes were started by the military without the Sultan’s approval and then he was presented with the thing by the joint chiefs, probably on that ride over to the White House, and told he needed to own the strikes, that would be politically extremely damaging to stop them and to disown them. That would explain the odd reactions of the Sultan.