Airpower and irregular war: a battle of ideas

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, "Why Air Power Alone Won't Beat ISIS (Islamic State Iraq and Syria)," military historian and foreign-policy analyst Max Boot presents a clear thesis expressed in his title: anti-ISIS coalition airpower efforts will fail if not combined with ground forces. His article describes early airpower theories and their limitations confronting irregular warfare (IW). He looks at the airpower doctrine devoted to strategic air warfare for an industrial age but neglects more contemporary thinking. His critique appears to be on the mark and is largely unchallenged by many contemporary Airmen, but Boot's article misses an even more important question given public opposition to committing ground forces in Syria and Iraq: what can airpower do to confront the Islamic State? Or stated more generally, what can air forces do to counter IW?