Exactly. In and out. The public doesn’t have the stomach for much else...and frankly neither do I.
If the pols aren’t willing to officially declare war, it’s not worth risking the lives of our military. A state of war means they’re soldiers; a police action, as we’ve learned from history, means they’re political pawns.
And cannon fodder.
If we aren’t willing to wage total war, we shouldn’t bother beyond an occasional well aimed airstrike.
In WWII we defeated our enemies to the point where the populations had no will to continue to fight. We could release POWs without fear because they were returning to a population that wasn’t going to help them continue the fight. There were some who wanted to continue to fight a guerrilla war against the allies after the German surrender but it failed because the German people wanted no part of it.
Neither Germany nor Japan has ever been a problem for us since.