Ground forces would be needed in Syria and Iraq to tip the balance in our favor and awe the locals with our resolve, i.e. show we have skin in the game.
Also, use special forces to train moderate opposition forces in Syria and also maybe the Kurds to better fight the Khilafah forces.
But we would probably best seek to sever their moral, logistical and economic roots from the beginning.
Go after their financial infrastructure, their transportation infrastructure, their means of production, etc. Use air and ground forces to deprive them of their crude oil production and refinery assets as well as the dam. Put them all on foot. Go after anyone helping them to smuggle oil out to a market.
Destroy their warehouses and ammo dumps. Pay Sunni tribe leaders in Iraq and Syria to help us.
Be ready to defend Jordan.
Those are some thoughts.
I am conflicted.
While I agree that experience and the reality of our present role in the world do lead us to intervene, I wouldn't ask anyone to die for Obama and his policies. You don't go into battle behind someone you can't trust.
And I ultimately would prefer that the US pursue a policy of armed neutrality although I know we passed that up a century ago.
So maybe we have to sit this one out.