re ISIS: Sometimes turning the other cheek is not an option.

[Orsino]

27. There is just the tiniest whiff of the ticking time bomb about the OP...

...it being a little simplistic and carefully crafted so as to admit of no disagreement. "What if no diplomacy were possible?" It asks. "What if violence were the only available response? Would you then admit that we must commit violence?" Tautology.

It's not airtight, however. Even violence these days is not mutually exclusive with diplomacy. If fight we must, better to do so in alliance with other powers through negotiations that do not put us in conflict with other interested parties. The UN ought to be our route, if only to help our new war not look so much like naked corporate American aggression/interference/occupation. Or like a knee-jerk reaction by a nation of bloodthirsty fools.

But yeah, sometimes we have an opportunity or obligation to send in troops. If that's what we'really going to do, we should also accept responsibility for the quagmire likely to result, and for the civilian casualties we're going to inflict. Our aim is not perfect; how many innocentts are we going to kill/maim/pauper?