I have decided not to post a lot here about the ISIS/France/Syria matter. Darn near everything I'm reading now on the 'net strikes me as puffery that's more intended to sway our presidential election than to actually change the situation over there. There's also my long-held prejudice against people who talk tough…especially when that's all they do. They don't actually do anything that could be considered tough. Sometimes, they don't do anything at all. But a lot of people in this world believe that if you sound like John Wayne, you must be him. (They also forget that John Wayne wasn't tough. His stuntmen were tough. His agents were probably tough. He wasn't tough.)
But here's Fred Kaplan on how he thinks ISIS can be defeated and here's Daniel Larison on how he thinks ISIS cannot be defeated. I sure as hell don't know. I just know talking tough is about impressing people, not about defeating them.