Juan Cole On Syria

He says:

The some 22 sorties flown on Monday will have killed some ISIL terrorists, blown up some weapons warehouses, and destroyed some checkpoints. But ISIL are guerrillas, and they will just fade away into Raqqah’s back alleys. The US belief in air power is touching, but in fact no conflict has ever been quickly brought to an end where US planes have been involved.

He must mean "where only U.S. planes [i.e. airstrikes] have been involved."  

Wrong, of course: consider air strikes in the former Yugoslavia.

Not that I expect air strikes alone to do the trick, let alone quickly.

But there's no reason to exaggerate.