CargoOne, draken55,
How ridiculous would we have looked if we had tried to take out the IADS using "legacy" methods in order to be "sporting", and lost aircraft or missed the targets due to evasive action? War is not supposed to be fair and we have a duty to minimise the risk to our own forces. Even old SAMs such as SA-2 and SA-6 have a significant capability - it's very easy for you to sit at your keyboard and pontificate, a very different thing to commit your aircraft inside the no-escape zone around each site to look for civilians and drop a bomb...
I think it's pretty clear that the B-2, TLAM and Storm Shadow phase is drawing to a close, so it's a dead argument, anyway. Roll on the CAPs, reconnaissance, overwatch, response options and CAS.
Just a thought - what if CAS in support of civilians became known doctrinally as CivCAS?!? Could make for some confusing press statements. Or if there was no JTAC there, it would be CivECAS. (I'll get my coat).