Should We Watch the ISIS Video of the Jordanian Pilot?

Unfortunately, that will never happen. Too many eyes on the battlefield. We don't fight wars the way we used too. It's no longer a matter of closing with and engaging a uniformed enemy fighting for a belligerent government that you can either annihilate or force to surrender by bombing civilian populations and infrastructure to the point where they can no longer afford to fight. The enemy today doesn't have a clear identifier (none that the public will admit), AND... no one is going to bomb "all of them" in order to get "them" to surrender. No one has identified "them", because most westerners can't comprehend the motives of the enemy, for one. For two, they are ALL too afraid of sounding... take your pick: intolerant, racist, or any number of "-phobes". In WWII the enemy was clearly identified, as was their agenda and ideology. No one questioned what the motives were of Nazi Germany, and no one made excuses or apologies for them. No one questioned what the motives were of Imperialist Japan. Unfortunately, civilian casualties on both sides were astronomical. Short of an all out war against China, NK, or Russia... you will NEVER have warfare like WWII again. With no clearly defined enemy, no clearly defined ideology or enemy objective, you will always be fighting a defensive war, despite the occasional offensive strikes.

Good question Casey. Knowing what I know now, I would still use the last (on them), but die in the process. It this last video, the pilot almost looked like he was acting a role in the video. At that point, you have no know you are going to die. Before I go out via beheading or fire. I will bite, kick, scream, and scratch, until someone did me in the old fashion was.

That was my biggest fear in Iraq. I often had told myself that there is no way in hell I would be taken alive just to end up a f$%^ing youtube clip, either by my own hand or forcing theirs. God forbid, if they were successful in my capture, my intent was to fight to the end, bound/zip-tied or not. Kick, hell, BITE if necessary, but no way was I going to go out quietly on my knees with my head bowed. They would just have to shoot. I can only speculate, but maybe for some, knowing the futility of their circumstances they opted to face death stoically and with what they felt was dignity. Maybe to them fighting would look like cowardice. I think no one knows until they find themselves in it. I just knew that I would try to fight to survive with anything I had. Thankfully, it never came to that and me and my crew all came back.

There are many images I can't get out of my head, but they only steeled my resolve. We were fed a LOT of cold-war BS about what to do if captured (humanize yourself with your enemy, etc.). That doesn't work with fundamentalists like these, because you aren't human to them. You're an infidel. Subject to conversion, the tax, or death. It was my view that I could never... NEVER allow myself, or my crew to consider capture as an option on the gamble that they MIGHT be able to survive it. With that off the table, the only option was full commitment. You were either going to fight to win or die IF it came to that. Luckily, it never did.

Sgt Nick Marshall, I believe it has been widely confirmed that it was the Jordanian pilot 1LT Moath Al Kasasbeh. He was most likely killed on or about 3 JAN 2015, however the amount of production time D'aesh put into creating and editing the video delayed its release until 3 FEB 2015.