re: How do we proactively eradicate ISIS without "continuing pointless war in the Middle East?

UNFORTUNATELY the only apparent way for the United States to see a war through and an enemy defeated is for the majority of the country (especially the MEDIA) to be behind the idea.

Take Vietnam for example, one of the first wars of US involvement in which our own media promoted the idea that all marines and members of the US Military were baby killers and horrible people if they even went to Vietnam no matter if they were just a coreman.

Until the country becomes ONE again, and by ONE I mean that we aren't fighting a war on two fronts (one physically and one with our own press), we are just simply treading water and are only fighting wars of attrition while folks back home try to figure stuff out, leading to a conundrum of other issues created by one common problem : Lack of Unity

Someday soon the US of A will establish sides and clear "Battle Lines" over current issues and things will probably boil over into something that would be on a scale of Civil War. Only when something as dramatic as this actually happens and the United States of America are of one voice again is when we will actually have the momentum and willpower to eradicate a force such as ISIS.