Much as I love pointing out the many flaws and weaknesses of Obama, I dont know what more Obama can do right now. He underestimated the threat of ISIS...sure. He mishandled the Iraqi troop pullout, screwed up the negotiation process which involved leaving a significant deterrent force in place, (ignoring even his own political advisers) true. But...after ISIS began rolling he engaged and is still engaging using really the only tools at his disposal. If he goes in full bore, guns blazing, people on the right will be critical of engaging. If he does nothing, people on the right will be critical of doing nothing. His Obots will defend him no matter what but many on the left will just accuse him of going to war to appease the eeeeevil right wing neocons. And as of this writing, the world doesnt appear to be lining up to help out. Realistically, the drone attacks and air strikes are his best option.
The problem is that half-hearted measures like that won't be effective. And sending forces in piecemeal, as he's done, is very likely to get some of them killed while achieving nothing very important. This is an unmitigated disaster, and it is Mr. Obama's complete dereliction that's brought it about. Letting these jihadists stay where they are--and far more force than he's willing to use would be needed to drive them out--is inviting another attack even worse than 9/11. They have even more resources than Al Qaeda had during the years leading up to that, and as good a safe haven as they had in Afghanistan.
Syria had large stocks of chemical weapons, and it is naive to think Assad, with his back to the wall, would have disclosed and removed any more than needed to give the appearance he was cooperating. The thought of a dozen suicides with flasks of sarin and VX spraying it around crowded public places all over the U.S. is a little unsettling. Disneyland, maybe?
It's also possible that these jihadists could get anthrax weapons. We know Hussein's regime had learned the techniques for processing the germs into a form that would be militarily useful. About 6,000 liters of liquid anthrax culture were found and destroyed by international inspectors, along with processing machinery. Some of the people with that knowledge must be around, and there's no shortage of money to buy their help. And the raw materials needed did not disappear forever, just because a batch or two of them was destroyed years ago.
When the U.S. had a biological weapons program, it had a study done of the probable effects of releasing one hundred kilos of weaponized anthrax powder from a cropduster flying upwind of a large city in weather conditions favorable for an attack. The dust was assumed to be released at a certain speed and altitude, during a certain number of seconds, while flying across the wind.
The dust would settle everywhere, and many thousands of people would inhale small amounts of it--it does not take much. And this would happen for many hours or probably days, until the first cases appeared at hospitals and made people aware the anthrax was there. The study's conclusion was stunning--a well-designed attack like this could kill roughly as many people as a nuclear weapon exploded over the same city.
Most of us hear light planes flying at night all the time, without having any idea where they are going, or who or what is on board. I've flown in a plane like that myself, at night over L.A. Nothing would prevent a plane from pulling out of a cropduster hangar a few dozen miles outside a city one night, and taking off with an unusual load. The whole thing would be done a few minutes later, and judging by the response on 9/11, it's very unlikely anyone would even know anything had happened, let alone react in time to stop it.
Not to worry, though--the ship of state is safe and sound, with President Pinprick at the helm.