The half-measures that Obama is pursuing against the Islamic State will never destroy it. The lives being lost there are being lost in pursuit of the cosmetic appearance of doing something, not in pursuit of genuinely damaging the Islamic State.
“American soldier killed in ISIS rocket attack in northern Iraq, official says,” by Lucas Tomlinson, Fox News, March 19, 2016:
An American soldier was killed within the past 24 hours when a rocket fired by ISIS landed near his position in the town of Makhmur, 75 miles southeast of Mosul, a U.S. defense official told Fox News Saturday.
“It was a lucky strike by ISIS,” the official said..
The Pentagon is expected to make an announcement shortly.
The US-led coalition fighting ISIS released a statement about the attack Saturday morning, but the nationality of the soldier was withheld. It said the soldier was killed by “enemy action,” but was not more specific.
The soldier is the second American killed fighting ISIS since combat operations began in August 2014.
In October, a Delta Force master sergeant was killed during a daring hostage rescue in Iraq.
The death of Army Master Sgt Joshua Wheeler was the first American casualty in Iraq since the withdrawal of US forces in 2011.
There are roughly 3,700 US troops on the ground in Iraq advising the Iraqi Army. Earlier this month, a brigade from the 101st Airborne Division relieved a similar sized brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division.
In December, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the deployment of a 200-man special operations task force to Northern Iraq to begin kill/capture missions against the Islamic State….