Air strikes in Syria not destructive enough?

Rowan Scarborough:

President Obama is playing too nice in the air war against the Islamic State and the Khorasan Group, critics say, pointing to a spared bombing target in Syria as an example.

Photos of the aftermath of a U.S.-led airstrike late Monday showed that the Islamic State finance center’s rooftop communications array had been destroyed, but the building itself was left intact.

The limited effectiveness of the airstrikes is further diminished by the Iraqi security forces’ decidedly mixed results in combat and inability to reverse most gains of the Islamic State, also known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS.

Iraqi troops also lack a key skill in a badly needed mission: finding and designating ground targets for U.S. warplanes, making the American air campaign more difficult.

“I was mad as hell when I saw the hit on a supposed ISIL building,” said Bart Bechtel, a retired CIA operative. “The right question is: Why not the whole building?”

“This, in my humble opinion, was all designed as a PR move for the American people to try to show that Obama is taking real action,” he said. “Nonsense. If you want to destroy ISIL, how about destroy the entire buildings. The military is frustrated, I am sure.”

A retired Air Force general who has remained in touch with the jet fighter community says the U.S. air war is too narrow: not enough planes, heavy ordnance or sorties.

Before the first assaults in Syria on Monday night, U.S. Central Command had conducted 190 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq since Aug. 8 — less than an average of four per day.

“Unfortunately, we did not use the right weapons,” said the retired officer, a former fighter pilot. “For example, blowing an antenna off the top of buildings. Hit the building with a 2,000-pounder, not cruise missiles.

“It is a start, but we need many more sorties,” he said.
...

There is more.

The attacks need to be much more robust.  I think we still do not have enough aircraft in the theater to conduct the kind of campaign needed to degrade and deter ISIL.  We also need to be conducting daylight raids that catch the fighters out in the open or at work.