Here it is from the Free Beacon:
Pentagon: Islamic State Burning Hostage Alive ‘Not The Act of a Winner’
The Islamic State released a barbaric video of the Jordanian pilot that was being held prisoner and was used as bargaining chip, burned alive. Rear Adm. John Kirby held a press conference to address the situation and how the United States plans to respond. Kirby said that the plan was to degrade and destroy IS capabilities and continue to put them on the defensive. When asked about the seriousness of the murders, Kirby couldn’t put it into words.
“I can’t–there’s no way I could possibly figure out how to justify it in your brain because it’s so twisted,” Kirby said. “These aren’t the acts of a winner. They’re not winning.”
I would have expected more from the Pentagon representative – seriously “…acts of a winner”? When one engages in military action against an enemy (and make no mistake in that if we are bombing ISIS, we are at war), these are not the words that fit. If you look at this theocratic style Islamofacist situation, there is a war going on and I would have expected Kirby to talk in that manner and from that standpoint. The problem for us in this fight, however, are words like that. To wit, this is a political action from what I have heard him say, what Obama has said, and what his Press Secretaries have clumsily told us. Everything that is said is calibrated to NOT name our enemy and never acknowledge that our enemy has certainly named us (and they DO get a vote in all this, regardless of the posing that Obama has done thus far).
A Jordanian jet pilot was burnt alive by these Islamist jihadists – this is pure savagery but for time everlasting, that defines war. War IS savage, it is brutal, and unspeakable things happen that people aren’t proud of (e.g. utterly disgusted in doing) but at times, necessary. War is not a tea party and not a Rose Garden event; those that profess Politically Correct tactics often get other people killed.
Winner? Well, it got the E.A.U. to drop out of Obama’s small coalition – they will no longer fly sorties fighting ISIS. War is all about breaking your enemies’ will to wage war; this brutal and barbaric act of roasting a human alive WAS a win. It really is a success and time will tell if other “partners” will drop out – either officially or by slinking away their resources (as our partners like Germany et al that sent troops to Afghanistan but had such restrictive Rules of Engagement they didn’t fight much at all). Sure, they seemed to have really stirred up Jordan’s King Abdullah (and for good reason) but will the others decide “We’re not gonna take these kinds of hits” is more their style vs that of “we must stand together or singly we’ll hang”?
Or in the case of ISIS, become a modern day equivalent of the Roman human torches?
