US Pounds Targets Outside Besieged Syrian City of Kobani. -NBC News

On October 16, we had our second Student Ambassador meeting at the World Affairs Council and in our Socratic Seminar we discussed the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

We debated issues such as the influence of social media on ISIS operations and recruitment, how the international community should respond to hostage negotiations, the influence of Turkey in the region, the Responsibility to Protect doctrine (R2P) and the use of air strikes in Iraq and Syria.

As of right now, unmanned drone and air strikes have been the primary method used by foreign nations to exert a military presence in Iraq and Syria. A recent Al Jazeera article reports that US-led drone strikes in the last month have killed an estimated 500 ISIS soldiers, but that these strikes have had little effect on ISIS.

I consider drones to be an ineffective method of military intervention because as John Boehner said, “it will take more than airstrikes to destroy ISIL.” Furthermore, the consequences of airstrikes often outweigh the benefits.

In the case of the fight against ISIS, drone strikes often result in the disruption of civilian life. US led forces conducted airstrikes on three makeshift oil refineries in Syria as part of a plan to decrease the revenue of ISIS. Rami Abdelrahman of the Observatory told Reuters, “these so-called refineries are not a real target, and they do not weaken Islamic State, as they do not have any financial value for them. They are composed of trucks with equipment to separate diesel and petrol used by civilians.” Similar strikes have resulted in the doubling of oil prices for civilians without any clear cost to ISIS.

ISIS has also been using drone strikes and the civilian casualties that occasionally occur with drone strikes to recruit more soldiers to fight in Iraq, Syria, and against the West.

In summation, airstrikes have disrupted civilian life, resulted in ISIS gaining more support and have failed to stop the advance of ISIL fighters. I invite you to leave comments on what you think is the best way to stop ISIL.

By Alex Sahai, Student Ambassador, Lick-Wilmerding High School

Educators, if you would like to lead a Socratic Seminar on this topic, we welcome you to use our reading packet and lesson plan: Fish bowl Discussion on ISIL.