While air strikes have been common in the past few months when dealing with foreign relations in the Middle East, yesterday there was a new development. On Saturday, a senior Islamic State leader was targeted and killed by United States special operations forces. This key figure was reportedly in charge of dealing with the organization's black market oil and gas sales. His wife was captured, and about a dozen other Islamic State fighters were killed. President Obama has publicly stated that he does not intend for there to be any major ground fighting. This apparently does not include special forces raids.
I know that this kind of thing must go on all of the time, but still it feels very childish and unnecessary. A long history of violence will continue if we are still trying to kill off every leader who we think has done wrong or who we don't agree with. I'm not sure when the United States took on the role of judicial power over the entire world, but I'm not sure that is fair to put on this country's shoulders. We're bound to make mistakes. This is not unlike the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. This is a messy area. Much of the morality is a gray area between what we need to do in order to protect ourselves and what infringes on the rights of others. Kidnapping the wife was certainly not necessary, unless she too was participating in the illegal oil deals. There should have been a trial. This is similar to the case of the Rosenbergs. They were perceived to be guilty and so they were executed. I'm not sure how much actual justice is present in either of these cases.
http://news.yahoo.com/u-says-troops-kill-senior-islamic-state-leader-125658571.html
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