The problem will always be, and has always been the fact that when one side hides amongst civilians, brain washes the innocent to build their forces larger, and then when attacked, cowers back into the general populace of an area...there's no way of tactically eradicating them at all without innocent casualties.
It's a cancer. And you can't attack cancer 9 times out of 10 without destroying the host or parts of the host. Innocent casualty of the fight unfortunately.
The difference though is that the cancer patient chooses the method of eradicating the cancer with knowledge of what is coming. The way terrorist groups like ISIS work, you simply cannot inform the innocents that will be effected because they A.) Many won't fight for themselves out of fear, and B.) Because they won't fight, they tend to take a passive attitude in terms of these things, being vocally opposed to such actions, but only in the sense that they themselves would "never do such a thing".
This presents a serious and almost insurmountable problem...people who would be the most useful AGAINST ISIS are either too afraid to combat them in any way and/or hold an attitude about the situation that is simply useless in regards to putting together a legitimate opposition. They simply want to stay out of it in hopes ISIS will leave their family alone so they can just maintain what life they have for themselves.
And I honestly cannot blame them...what other way COULD they think in this environment? With no real internal leadership, no real "patriotism" (for lack of better term), and a life full of violence and fear from all directions...they are shell shocked and probably just thankful for a bit of peace between storms. It takes A LOT to stand up to such opposition...takes even more for broken people to do it. It'd take a damn god sent miracle to get a group of broken people who watch ISIS just run roughshod over their whole existence day in and day out, who show violent confidence to take on the "world" by killing hostages from all over the world, and come to these people with offers of survival if they either stay quiet or join forces...it's just an impossible situation.
And because of this...I personally feel that there is no choice but to resort to attacks on ISIS that risk innocent lives. There's really no other way to do it, and there won't EVER be any other way because of the way these terrorists intertwine themselves without groups of innocent people. They do it tactically...and it's a genius move because it ensures their survival for the immediate future.
What other choice will there EVER be? Our mighty military responds to threats and actions with the equivalent of a BB gun in terms of what it is capable of...yet this target presents one of the most critical and dangerous opponents our country has ever seen. Forget a Pearl Harbor attack, where the Japanese played by certain rules and targeted military units...hell, forget 9/11, where the terrorists chose a large, public, "shock value" target...no, we're going to face sleeper cells EVERY WHERE within our cities, causing wide spread destruction, panic and, their ultimate prize, terror amongst our people.
And then we faithfully and knowingly give away our own freedoms in the name of "safety" and "security". We watch as people run in and out of the white house like a revolving door, taking a punch at the constitution and then running away with their earned riches never to be seen again. And there's a f*cking LINE of these people waiting to keep battering our freedom so long as there is a threat...an almost invisible threat that could be anywhere like an airborne plague...a threat that sits back and waits until tactics lead them to an event, and they eat away at our countries sanity, safety and ways of life.
So do I think innocent blood should be spilled in the name of eradicating terrorist groups? Hell no. I don't think a single innocent life should be lost in such a move...but you know what? It's going to happen...and maybe when it does happen, it'll put a charge in those people to actually HELP stop these terrorists because they don't want to get incinerated by another set of US birthed tactical missiles...maybe they'll start a civil uprising against terrorists that prevents us from needing to level these desert towns full of innocent men, women and children...MAYBE...JUST MAYBE...they'll start fighting back against the people who are putting them in the crosshairs in the first f*cking place.
That's just my thoughts on the subject though.