What are our options in the war with ISIL?

Should we formally declare war? Should we attack them ourselves or just support other countries bombing them?

I recall that part of Al Qaeda’s strategy was that Americans wouldn’t have the patience for a long, drawn-out, expensive ground war. They won huge wins by tricking Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld into attacking Iraq. They probably never even imagined that Bush would be so stupid as to dismiss the Iraqi army and police and plunge the country into civil war, costing us trillions of dollars and many more years of hassles.

ISIL is probably making the same bet, that we’re not willing to get into a ground war.

Maybe we should just give massive payments to other countries to clean up their own region. After all, American soldiers on Arab soil inflames many Arabs. Maybe we should come up with more options. If we’re willing to kill lots of innocent people, there are ways of destroying large areas. Is that an option?

Should we send in ground troops? If so, should we start the draft? Should we only use volunteers? Should we send the National Guard? Should we raise salaries and benefits till we have enough volunteers? Should we let illegal immigrants volunteer and thereby earn citizenship? Should we hire mercenaries?

By what rules should we engage in war? Should we allow torture again, or ban it?

We’re already using drones. Should we use robots? Should we use chemical or biological weapons?

Should we pay for the war by borrowing more money? Should we raise taxes to pay for the war? Should we cut other branches of government to pay for the war?

In the Iraq war, we didn’t issue all of our soldiers body armor. Shall we, this time?

These are all questions on the new War on ISIL question set. Would America be better off if the people said what they want? Or shall we do what we usually do, let the President make any decision he wants and then simply criticize it?