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I think the key issue with Afghanistan was leaving too early. In terms of 'nation building' it was undoubtedly a very challenging situation. From a geographical spread the progress made was enormously varied but in many cases when ISAF left Afghanistan local communities were much better off.
'except that you need a laser designator on the ground to make use of
that, which is exactly what we don't have'They can be guided by lots of means. We do have people on the ground precisely for coordinating this kind of thing too.
fallschirmjäger
I feel like you may not be exactly clear on how bombing works. The planes we launched today were carrying Paveway bombs - laser guided, which should increase accuracy, except that you need a laser designator on the ground to make use of that, which is exactly what we don't have.
Right now we may be able to find targets with low densities of civilians, but if there is any end-game in mind, then bombing Raqqa is presumably part of that. ISIS have been building tunnels under other cities against exactly this eventuality, so I suspect the civilian to insurgent hit rate is going to skew pretty radically at that point.