Re: And that was supposed to be discouraged by the show of American might.
The idea was to discourage the support of terrorism by various states. While the jury is still out on this, I notice that Syria is suddenly coughing up Iraqi regime members.
You aren't going to be able to discourage the terrorists themselves by military action. I don't know how you go about scaring someone who is willing to blow himself to hell to make a point. But if we can cut off their support structure, it will at least help.