I am starting to think that some major power is going to have to put physical troops on the ground almost right now. Once they take places like Bagdad will require a far more major effort. That they are currently getting set up to take Bagdad as well is known.

My honest guess is that outsiders just do not know what to do with the situation. I also suspect they are waiting for some serious act as justification to change what has been said so far.

No boots on the ground is just an expression. The rebels or whatever soon will have stabilized their northern flank. This will free up a sizable proportion of their manpower and equipment that I suspect may be still growing daily much faster than their losses. Actually the use of air power may have changed their stratagy. Only operations in highly populated areas are going to become the norm. Air power is far less effective to not of any effect worth mentioning when they do.

If a sizable force is not sent there right away. It will in all likelihood become far worse and harder to deal with. Every day counts to avoid house to house and street to street fighting situations with higher military and civilian losses. The fact is air power application is doing exactly what I felt it must do from a logical perspective. No group is going to stay in an exposed position on open territory to fall easy casualties from air attack.

It may have made the situation much worse already. They have been forced to take the cities now. It will become harder and harder and a lot more expensive in many ways to beat them down the longer the time frame is. There is too much mounting evidence that since the first major issues in the middle east almost all decisions of a military nature have been micro managed from a political position. This is somewhat different from the distant past where politicians set the desired end point and the military where given a semi hands off position to achieve it.

I am not for wars. Still if they are a necessity call them what they are and deal with it the cheapest way possible in money and manpower losses. Not pretend it is not a war basically. Personally I am a little suprised air power had not at least slowed them down. Instead it has speeded up their timetables I suspect. This practice of announcing to the general public what you are going to do in advance of doing it would drive me crazy if I were a military leader. It amounts to the reckless loss of military Personel.