Everyone it seems has a strategy for defeating the self-declared Islamic State. But the ones proposed by two of the Republican candidates for president truly stand out.
Sen. Ted Cruz said last week that the United States should “carpet-bomb [the Islamic State] into oblivion.” He added, “I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out.”
Donald Trump has a similar plan. Though he recently replied, when asked how he would deal with the group, that he would “leave [that] to your imagination,” he has talked previously about “bombing the [crap]” out of the Islamic State. Virtually all the GOP candidates, along with a healthy chunk of the pundit class, have argued that the U.S. needs to fight the war against the group more aggressively, in particular by ramping up air operations, even if doing so leads to increased risk for civilians.