A recent news
item began: “The U.S. and Arab allies launched another round of strikes
Wednesday on [rock-]oil refineries in Syria, which the militants use in part to
fund their multi-million[-]dollar operation.”
Why not strike the militants,
rather than destroy infrastructure that a postwar Syria would need to rebuild
its economy? Likely because hitting
large, usually undefended civilian targets with “airstrikes” is all that one
can accomplish in the absence of the ground forces that will be needed to win
this war.