Now that we and our coalition partners have opened the salvo against ISIS in Syria…..there are a few things that Americans are probably asking themselves…….well I hope they are and showing the concern that this could all get out of hand.

Questions!  I suggest that Americans ask all the questions they can…..after all it is our citizens that are doing the deed…….Let me start it off.

• Why Raqqa? It’s ISIS’ “de facto capital,” writes Terrence McCoy for the Washington Post. Militants took the northern city in January and now essentially govern it. “There’s a tax system, a school system, a court system, bakeries, mosques—and paychecks arrive on time. … [It] symbolizes everything the Islamic State hopes to achieve across the region: a functioning, militarized theocracy,” writes McCoy. That makes it an “attractive target.” And there’s a dark side to the orderliness. From a UN report: “Executions in public spaces have become a common spectacle on Fridays. Public squares have become the scene of amputations, lashings, and mock crucifixions.”
• What did the effort consist of? USS Arleigh Burke and USS Philippine Sea fired 47 Tomahawk missiles; Air Force fighter jets, armed drones, and allied aircraft also participated. Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia were part of the effort. The Wall Street Journal reports that some of their planes flanked those of the US and sees their involvement as key, in that it detracts from “the appearance of a unilateral US attack on Syrian territory.”
• What did we hit? Per CNN, training compounds, headquarters, storage facilities, supply trucks, armed vehicles, and ISIS militants, though the number of ISIS fighters killed wasn’t given by the Pentagon.
• What did we target beyond ISIS? The “Khorasan Group,” which the Journal describes as a smaller group that’s actually a bigger threat to the West. A defense official told the paper that intelligence indicates the group was in the “advanced stages” of planning an attack against a target in the US or Europe. ABC News reports the US, with no assistance from our allies, carried out eight strikes against them; the remaining 14 were against ISIS.
• So are we done? No. Think of this as the initial blow.
• How many countries have we targeted with airstrikes (via plane or drone) since 9/11? We’re up to seven, reports the Atlantic: Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Libya, and now Syria.

Now that the nut cutting has begun….there is a question that is plaguing me……What happens next?

U.S. military officials will be trying to assess the effectiveness of the first night of bombing.

Some analysts have suggested that ISIS had already started dispersing its assets and fighters following President Barack Obama’s warning of action in Syria earlier this month.

The response of ISIS fighters to the initial strikes may give military officials clues on what to target next.

“The follow-up to some of these strikes is — what are their actions now?” said retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a CNN military analyst. “There is intelligence that flows from the initial strike,” he said.

The Arab governments involved in the strikes could also face discontent among their own people.

“Parts of the population do not agree with Sunni going against Sunni,” Hertling said.

The United States is also pushing for a binding resolution at the U.N. General Assembly this week that aims to prevent and track the travel of foreign fighters to Syria.

All in all Pandora has opened the box…….there is NO closing it again……..the US has made it imperative that we remain in the Middle East for many more years……something that will not sit well with other extremists….there is the possibility that we just made more enemies that we will have to face……..sooner or later.