Watch or listen to this debate from August 2015 with the motion "Containment Is Not Enough: ISIS Must Be Defeated". In the debate, foreign policy experts argue over what the Obama administration's next steps should be in dealing with ISIS. The side for ISIS being defeated proposes that containing ISIS in the region poses a threat to the surrounding region and the enemies of ISIS around the World, and that this threat will only grow over time. These foreign policy experts do not advocate putting "boots on the ground" of U.S. troops, but they feel a much stronger resolution needs to be put in place to roll back and defeat ISIS.
The side for containing ISIS and staying the course with the current U.S. policy, feels that containment is the best option at this time while we wait for the conflict to play out, and that ultimately the turmoil in Syria and Iraq are not our battle to win. They also cite the lack of political will for a full scale war against ISIS in the wake of two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It's a good debate that helps to make sense out of a very complicated and messy situation in the Middle East and the results of the debate are quite interesting. Towards the end of the debate questions are received from the audience including questions from David Petraeus and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The debate can be watched on YouTube or downloaded on MP3 from the Intelligence Squared U.S. website.