Officials confirmed the move toward surveillance flights over ISIS targets in Syria, leaving somewhat open the question of when the US is going to start launching airstrikes against targets inside Syria, expanding the Iraq War across the border.

Yet it’s not really a question of if, but when, as the surveillance flights are clearly the first step toward such attacks. The primary question is how to start launching such attacks without Syrian coordination, since officials want to avoid the appearance of cooperating with Syria.

The questions abound about expanding the war into Syria and are mostly unanswered, with Gen. Dempsey pushing the attacks, and the US already giving targeting intel to Syria’s government for the ISIS war.

Escalation in Iraq is continuing, with the Anbar Provincial governor talking about planned US deployments there. Nothing’s been confirmed yet, but the US seems eager to expand the conflict in several ways, turning the “humanitarian intervention” into a full-scale war spanning multiple countries.