Wednesday, April 06, 2016

Blood Feud?

Is it just me or is this news a disturbing sign that we don't really believe we are fighting a war?

The anti-Islamic State coalition conducting airstrikes in Iraq and Syria has killed the IS militant believed responsible for an attack on U.S. troops in northern Iraq last month that left a Marine dead, it said on Sunday.

Militant Jasim Khadijah, a former Iraqi officer not considered a high-value target[.]

I ask because normally in war, when you take casualties, that is the price of doing this ugly business and you focus on winning the war you are in.

This "we got the guy that killed one of our guys" thing is odd, and makes it seem more like a crime or hit that we avenged in some sort of law enforcement operation or clan war.

I don't recall any similar situation in the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, or elsewhere. Or in past wars.

We are at war, aren't we? We are pursuing objectives aimed at winning the war and not just killing those who have done us wrong, aren't we?

If so, why are we boasting of getting individual enemy combatants who we fight who are not even high value targets justifying individual focus?

But perhaps it is just me, and the virus that has hit me is just making me cranky.