Airpower Jumping Off In Syria

[Bill Moore]

Our targeting process has allowed IS to maintain the initiative. This appears to be little more than theater to demonstrate to our voters before the midterm that we're tough on terror. Just get a bag of popcorn and watch the show. There isn't one military analyst who thinks this will work if someone's ground forces are not following up on these attacks.

As for civilians being killed maybe, but could also be propaganda.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...onslaught.html

Late on Saturday, the town’s prayers finally appeared to be answered, as a salvo of US air strikes hit distant Islamist positions in the nearby villages of Marj Esmael and Alishar, less than five miles from Kobane.

But as night fell, the American strikes appeared to have had little effect as Islamic State forces continued to pound the Kurdish positions with mortar shells, which shook the earth nearly a mile away across the Turkish border. Plumes of white smoke rose above the areas where the heavy artillery had fallen, and the smell of gun power hung in the air. In reply, the Kurdish forces offered only rifle fire, interspersed with occasional machine gun shots.

A sane strategist wouldn't be hitting empty buildings when a Kurdish town is about to be overrun.