Collateral damage....
One is reminded of the devastation that was visited upon the German city of Dresden in the Second World War. Kurt Vonnegut described the aftermath in his novel “Slaughterhouse 5”.
Bomb until there is not one stone upon another, then go back and bomb the rubble to dust.
Maybe we “do a Dresden” on Raqqa. When people see the ISIS/Daesh capital going up in flames, it might just make an impression.
I have been to Dresden.
the city center still bears marks of that bombing.