A U.S. special operations team killed the Islamic State’s second-in-command in a pre-dawn raid early Thursday morning inside Syria, senior defense officials said Friday – as Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the U.S. has taken out several key terrorists in recent days.
“We are systematically eliminating ISIL’s cabinet,” Carter said.
foxnews.com/politics/2016/03/25/official-carter-to-announce-killing-senior-isis-leader.html
One down a lot more to go.
Thank God for the defeats that daesh suffered the last few months. DEUS VULT! 
And eventhough I don’t feel sincere, I know it’s the right thing to say: “Lord have mercy on his soul”.
Are our leaders really that stupid to think this is going to have any impact on ISIS? Duh, someone else will just step up to take that #2 spot now, maybe an even more radical person, who can draw more fighters to the group!
Not to mention, even if the top leaders of ISIS are killed, the field level fighters are not going to just give up and call it a day…they are going to continue to fight on, plan new attacks, recruit more people, etc.
This war is nothing like past wars, killing the leadership will not accomplish anything, the fighters literally believe in what they are doing and are willing to die for it, its much different than a group of enemy soldiers taking orders from their superior and only fighting because they are told to.
this is good news, but we have been killing many of their top leaders and they continue to be a threat and cause death and mayhem.
Islamist jihad is not an organization near as much as it is an ideology. That is why nobody is talking about El Qada anymore. Daesh is all the rage.
It is important that organizational infrastructure is taken out, and territory is taken away from the Islamists, but the grassroots of the ideology lay in Islam itself. Unless and until Muslims themselves counter the Jihadist ideology with something that wins back the hearts and minds of their radicalized populations, focusing on the head of the snake is playing whack-a-mole.
Thats why I believe the ‘war on terror’ could go on forever, there will never be a day when they can claim 100% victory in this type of war, as long as there is a handful of dedicated fighters, willing to die for their beliefs, there will always be an enemy, I dont see the radical terrorists have a change of heart anytime soon either.
Strangely the idea was floated awhile back to use some super secret US technology to make it seem like the radical terrorists are seeing and hearing the prophet Mohammad, there are many articles about this, it is fascinating to read about, although Im not sure all of them would even fall for this trick.
I think the war on terror will continue on as it is, until some larger threat comes along, but it would have to be a major global threat, something like an imminent asteroid collision, that may be severe enough to force enemies to join together in defense of the planet.
As long as the Islamists can at least put up a good pretense to be winning and to being successful in their endeavors, there will be a never ending supply of people willing to sacrifice themselves to the cause.
Nothing discredits a religious or political movement like crushing defeat.
So far though it is the West and secular liberal movements that have been the failures, and the Islamists who are surging ahead.
It is not a matter of technology, but a matter of faith and will. People in the West no longer have the kind of faith necessary to believe in our system, and the Islamists have nothing but faith.
Faith wins hands down in that kind of situation, every time.
They certainly don’t seem to have a problem finding people to die for their faith or this ideology.
You are right, and i doubt I could find many christians willing to fight or die over their faith/ beliefs.
If it actually came to it, and I certainly can’t prove it, but I would guess there are probably no fewer than 20 million in the U.S. alone who would.
and certainly those Christians in our military that are ready to defend our country would fight to defend the Christian faith as well.
How many Christians might we find, I wonder, who would be willing to rape for their faith?
How many would be willing to explode themselves up in a bus of Jewish school children, or slaughter Muslims praying in mosques on their most holy of days?
How many Christians would be willing to crucify imams, I wonder?
good questions! and we know the answer - 0!
Yes, we certainly do.
The jihadist worldview of Islam can authentically and rationally lead to the practices of Daesh/ El quada. Even if they are ultimately a perversion of Islam, it is the kind of perversion that can be authentically believed in by those schooled in Islam.
The faith and belief in members of Daesh in such things as, for example, jihad rape,is well enough supported by the religious texts and traditions associated with Islam and Mohammed that such a faith is internally real enough to such individuals that they would die for it.
Such beliefs and practices cannot be authentically held by anyone schooled in the Way of Jesus.
This is not to say that the faith of large numbers of Christians is not every bit as real and as firmly held as that of any other religious group. Christians sacrifice to Christ and give their lives for their faith all the time, in a million different ways. It is to say however, that while Daesh can be an authentic perversion of Islam, it cannot be a perversion of Christianity. Christianity does not lend itself to such practices
Im not as optimistic as you are, far too many people today set their beliefs and faith aside so their secular life can be easier and/or more comfortable, and so they can ‘go with the popular flow’. I just find to hard to fathom all these 20+ million christians would be ready to give up their comfortable lives in defense of the faith, but maybe thats just me.
Jesus warned us there would be a time when many christians are tortured, arrested, killed due to his name though, so maybe more than I think would stand up for their beliefs…would be nice!
Id like to think I would be one of these people that NEVER deny my faith, but like other people, I enjoy my fairly easy life, I like my freedom, having money, a car, house, etc.
It would largely depend on who the aggressor was too.