Opinion

Time to bomb ISIS

The time for games is over.

On Tuesday, America got a horrific wake-up call: Islamic State terrorists released a gruesome video that shows them beheading James Wright Foley, an American photojournalist held in Syria since 2012. The group also showed another US journalist held hostage, Steven Joel Sotloff, and threatened to murder him as well.

“The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision,” declares the masked terrorist as he holds Sotloff by the neck.

True, that puts President Obama in a difficult spot. But the president must do whatever it takes to counter this vicious savagery: that is, launch full-throttled airstrikes against ISIS and its “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria — until the threat is gone.

With American lives now being taken and even more at risk, America is now directly involved. No more playing footsie with butchers. Indeed, even Pope Francis, alarmed at the mounting persecution of Arab Christians, has declared that “it is licit to stop the unjust aggressor.”

Until now, Obama has tried to limit US involvement against ISIS to humanitarian relief of stranded Yazidi refugees and protecting US officials in Iraq.

All that just changed. Fact is, ISIS doesn’t care how many people die in its goal of regional subjugation — or whether its victims are Iraqis or Americans. And, by the way, it’s always been a threat to this country, not just to Americans in Iraq and Syria. That threat needs to be eliminated.

ISIS has now sent what it called “A Message to America.” It’s time for America to send a more pointed message back.