Losing the best of our best

"I will once again quote General Colin Powell before he became a bit tame. He said he hated fair fights. He like overwhelming odds." 

I really don't know if I should feel mad or sad tonight. We just lost a Navy SEAL. Fighting in Iraq. While there, he was in an "advisory" role. Ash Carter broke the news to the country today. Well, it was just one guy, who happened to get in the wrong place at the wrong time when a ISIL bullet was in the air. WRONG! This kind of warfighting just absolutely drives me nuts!

I will once again quote General Colin Powell before he became a bit tame. Prior to the Gulf War, he said he hated fair fights. He like overwhelming odds (in his favor). He wanted to cut the head of the snake off so the snake would die. Now we are going back to the future. Back to how Vietnam was fought. By the politicians. A little bit here, a little bit there, and at the end we end up with almost 50,000 Americans dead. And by the way, also a lost war. 

Could we beat ISIL? Boko Haram? Al Qaeda? Any offshoot of the Islamic State? In a short sentence - in a heartbeat. Our best and brightest are almost unbeatable in a normal fight. But the way we are using these highly valued assets concerns me. And it should concern Ash Carter.

Now I am not saying this just because I am retired Navy. I am saying this because I am an American. And a world citizen who is tired of seeing innocent people getting killed for no reason. This latest scourge called the Islamic State needs to be eliminated for once and for all. Like yesterday.

No more American deaths. That is until we have (as Saddam said) we have the "mother of all battles". I would put our best up against their best any day of the week. And we would win quickly. Let's get it done. No more American deaths operating only on the fringe. The only American deaths that would be acceptable would be in obtaining total and permanent victory. 

So please Secretary Carter, bring our young SEAL home to Dover, so we can bury him (with honors) at Arlington. I would much prefer him to still be alive and on the battlefield getting ready to rid the world of the Islamic State. Can we please end this before my grandson is old enough to fight these guys? Please?