Heavys rejected intel that said their strategy would not work against ISIL

Daily Beast:

Exclusive: This Is the ISIS Intel the U.S. Military Dumbed Down

The intelligence pros said killing certain ISIS leaders might not diminish the group and that airstrikes might not be working. The bosses didn’t like those answers—not at all.

They were saying what I have been saying all along.  If you understand warfare you understand why the strategy was suspect.  What the military was being asked to do is wage a war of attrition with one hand tied behind its back.  It had no ground forces to "fix" the enemy in a position where they could be destroyed.   There was no attempt to deny strategic real estate to the enemy.  The military was left with intermittent raids and punching holes in the air looking for the few targets that they were allowed to hit.  The enemy adapted its attacks to these raids and was able to quickly replace those leaders killed in decapitation strikes.

To defeat an enemy, you must show him that his cause if hopeless.  Obama's restrictive attacks did the opposite.  They gave the enemy hope that the US and its allies would eventually tire of the futile attacks allowed under the strategy.