Killing the Jordanian pilot by burning him alive; has ISIS finally crossed the line? What should the US do?

Let me know if you need someone on your support team COL Jason Smallfield, PMP, CFM, CM.

LCpl Steve Wininger the thing about drawing lines, you have to be willing to back up your rhetoric. Otherwise you show your bluff and that you have no spine enabling the promised retribution. Similar to how the U.S. is perceived now...

Why is there a line? it's not our country, it's not our people, it's not our problem. Sure it's terrible, however we should not be running around trying to police the world... or protect corporate interests overseas.

SSG Colwell,
I respectfully disagree with "not our country, not our people, not our problem". A similar approach was taken in the 1790s against the Barbary Pirates, in the 1930s against Nazism, in the 1990s with the Taliban. All eventually became our problem. The question then becomes not if but when and how to address the problem. Do we address the problem sooner when it is a smaller and far from our shores or later when the problem is larger and on our shores? Remember that our National Security Strategy and the Army doctrine codifed within Unified Land Operations is to Shape, Deter, and Win. You are arguing that the only Army mission or the only US National Security interest is to win in conflicts only when the become "our problem". That is only one third of our mission.

It seems as long as it isn't happening here in our country, then it is someone else's problem. I see these types of comments on my facebook feed all the time. "Why are we there meddling"... It has become very easy to point the fingers at the great satan "United States" and say this all stems from us being in Iraq and Afghanistan. Problem with that way of thinking is that this has been going on for a long time before we became involved after 9/11.... Hopefully with this latest murder of the Jordanian pilot, the rest of the world wakes up, especially our own country before this starts spilling over in our own backyard.

LCpl Steve Wininger thank you for letting me expand my thoughts on this...1st a terrorist group cannot "declare war" on a sovereign nation (international law, States don't recognize terrorists as sovereign groups, etc.) and while I completely understand the emotions and sentiment it truly depends on more than emotion and a desire, even more so a Compulsion of the American soul to help those in need. What is the end state we hope to achieve and is it achievable? What American interests are served - vital ones the ones EVERY American is willing to pay the costs to preserve and die if necessary in doing so? What resources will be required? What risks do you accept in other areas of the world as you commit yourself to the ME & Levant region? Who will be our allies and who will say they are our allies and kill us when our backs are turned? If we commit what will Russia do? China? How will it affect the economy and jobs at home? All of these questions must be answered. I am not saying there is a right or wrong answer to what you propose I am only saying that before our leaders ask us (the officers and NCOs) to put our troops (our family) in front of someone else using deadly force that this must be thought out carefully and not executed due to fear or anger, so that the lives that are lost are for a purpose greater than us individuals and their blood is not shed in vain as we have done in our past.

ISIS is a bunch of bullies and they need to be dealt with in a violent manner by the country the crime has been perpetrated against. We are not the worlds police force, it is time for the world to stand up for themselves just as Jordan has. We can support allies in the region but we do not have to support revenge killing, that does not a display good fiscal common sense. If we were to jump the 82nd into every country an American was murdered in we could not meet our national defense strategy and it would be completely unaffordable. We need to continue to strike ISIS in strategic support of our allies and the US policy in that region and that is all. Revenge killing of an individual ( no matter how horrific) is not within the strategic interest of this nation .

CW5 (Join to see) - I fully agree. They have made threats against nearly every population group and nation across the globe. It's laughable now....hard to keep taking them serious, especially since they can't secure their own "borders" as they declare them. I think supporting a coalition "search and destroy" on Abu Al-Baghdadi would be a GREAT start.

I found it hard to believe that they would make the tactical blunder of attacking MULTIPLE Arab nations rather than playing off the tribal divisions that have historically prevented a unified front.
v/r,
CPT Butler

Wishful thinking, we have been and continue to be the world's police force , to a point that they now expect it. I'm okay with it if the loosen the ROE and let us do our job.

I've said it in other threads (probably this one somewhere) and I'll repeat it here. ISIL has declared war on the US because they have declared themselves a sovereign enitity (a Caliphate) with a capital. I say the POTUS petition the Congress to declare war on the Caliphate. If that's the status they want, then lets treat them like the beligerant nation they want to be. In my mind, that gives us and our allies legitimacy as they continue to commit atrocities on the world stage. A declaration of war is legal and founded in this case.

I have also said before (probably here) that if we do this we destroy completely. the military aparatus they have cobbled together. We don't go in to immunize kids, build schools or drill wells. We approach this as we are all taught from our earliest initial entry training- violence of action and overwhelming firepower. We make it so costly for them that other groups that want to take on the mantle of 'al Quieda' or 'ISIL' think long and hard.

Is it a long road, sure. Is it a bloody one, sure. but if we're going to do it, that's the way it has to be done.

SSG(P) (Join to see)
SFC Michael Jackson, MBA
SGT Scott Bailey
LCpl Steve Wininger
COL (Join to see)

We always try to win hearts and minds...this allows them into our world. It shows a compassionate, weak side. No President would order the slaughter...especially not this one.

To the lab, let's create is a man- made virus that kills anyone that doesn't eat pork, or make pork the antidote.

We can win hearts and minds later, I mean really. We have done this sort of thing before- in the Philipines, during the Spanish American War (agianst Islamic extremeists no less). Protect the population and aggresivley seek out the terrorists.