The leader of a group that allegedly actively pursues attacking the West has been killed, by an airstrike in Syria. A U.S. led coalition was behind the airstrike. Sanafi al-Nasr was the highest ranking member of this group, known as the Khorasan Group.
According to the Pentagon, this group is made up of veteran al Qaeda jihadis that ended up moving to Syria. Nasr, who was once al Qaeda’s chief financial officer, is the fifth senior Khorasan Group leader killed in the the last four months. He played a pretty big role in managing traveling routes for new Turkish recruits, from Pakistan to Syria.
Naturally, news of Nasr’s death spread like wildfire on jihadist social media sites, that revered and mourned him, and said his death was martyrdom. Which shouldn’t come as a shock as we mourn those who also fight for our ideologies.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a statement, “those who seek to do us harm are not beyond our reach,” to justify and praise our killing capabilities. These killings will continue non-stop, because we are not fighting just people, we are fighting an ideology.
Even though officials and journalists say this is a “significant blow,” to the terror organization, some other ideological extremist, will come and take his place. It might not be tomorrow or next month, but the hate they have for the West and Western society, is as deep-rooted and instilled in them, as an American patriot’s beliefs are instilled in him.
We have completely different ideologies, things that we just don’t see eye to eye with, but at the same time, is this difference in beliefs worth all this blood shed? There will never be an end to the jihadist warrior or the “infidels.” A lack of education and understanding, as well as taking advantage of a grim situation, with a sprinkle of brainwashing, all contribute to the hate filled jihadist.
In order for all these killings to stop, there needs to be something done, that unfortunately will probably never be accomplished, and that is people just need to be more accepting of others and just respect what people believe. Even if that doesn’t fall into ones belief system. So even though they claim this as a “victory,” true victory cant be accomplished till everyone wakes up and learns to be tolerant. Then we wouldn’t have one side pitted against another, we would just have two sides of peace.