CSM Troxell to ISIS: we will kill you, with bombs, bullets and e-tools.

So there are some who think this statement is wildly inappropriate for the  senior enlisted adviser to Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I am not one of them:

The Pentagon’s senior enlisted service member has issued a blunt warning to Islamic State fighters, saying in new social-media posts that they could either surrender or face death in a number of forms, including being beaten to death with steel entrenching tools.

Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell, the senior enlisted adviser in the Pentagon, issued the warnings on Facebook and Twitter. Senior U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have warned Islamic State fighters for months that they must lay down their weapons or face annihilation, but Troxell’s message was unusually forceful.

“ISIS needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them,” Troxell wrote on Facebook. “So, they have two options should they decide to come up against the United States, our allies and partners: surrender or die!”

Now to be fair, the only one I’ve heard really complaining about it was the CNN Pentagon Reporter Barbara Starr who mostly just questioned why he brought it up, but others on Twitter are seemingly unimpressed as well.   Not so much the vast bulk of my military friends who find it decidedly awesome.

Let’s bear in mind that this isn’t that different than anything General cum Defense Secretary Mattis has said in the past, like: "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you %^#& with me, I'll kill you all."  Or more recently hilariously responded to the question “what keeps you awake at night?” by answering "Nothing, I keep other people awake at night."

Either way, CSM Troxell’s entire Facebook post is solid gold:

ISIS needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them. So, they have two options should they decide to come up against the United States, our allies and partners: surrender or die! 

If they surrender, we will safeguard them to their detainee facility cell, provide them chow, a cot and due process.

HOWEVER, if they choose not to surrender, then we will kill them with extreme prejudice, whether that be through security force assistance, by dropping bombs on them, shooting them in the face, or beating them to death with our entrenching tools. 

Regardless, they cannot win, so they need to choose how it's going to be.

My friend Jonn Lilyea noted that there have recently been some KBE (killed by e-tool):

The last part of Troxell’s warning, referring to “our entrenching tools”, the folding shovel, probably refers to the news this week in the UK press about a Special Air Services trooper;

An elite SAS soldier cut off an ISIS fighter’s head with a spade after he ran out of ammunition during a bloody six-hour battle, it was claimed.

After killing the jihadist, the British sergeant used the enemy’s gun to kill more militants.

The brutal battle is said to have occurred six weeks ago in war-torn Afghanistan.

The British special forces unit was ambushed by ISIS gunmen and took refuge in a farm where the soldiers fended off the insurgents with their rifles and anything at hand, it was reported.

Military Times also had a list of people who had used e-tools to kill the enemy, including Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Army 1st Lt. Benjamin F. Wilson who used his lethally in 1951:

His unit had come upon a much larger enemy force in Hwach’on-Myon, Korea. Wilson dashed into enemy fire to assist members of his unit who were pinned down and he killed four enemy fighters with his rifle and grenades.

Wilson then “led a bayonet attack, which ... killed approximately 27 hostile soldiers,” according to his Medal of Honor citation.

But enemy forces launched another counterattack.

“First Lieutenant Wilson, realizing the imminent threat of being overrun, made a determined lone-man charge, killing seven and wounding two of the enemy, and routing the remainder in disorder.”

A third assault ensued, prompting Wilson to resort to fighting with his entrenching tool.

 “Unhesitatingly, First Lieutenant Wilson charged the enemy ranks and fought valiantly, killing three enemy soldiers with his rifle before it was wrested from his hands, and annihilating four others with his entrenching tool,” his award citation read.

Again, threats against ISIS aren’t going to make me sleep any less soundly.   We aren’t talking about a fight against some force that is humane and following the Geneva Convention here, they burn POWs to death.  Bullets, helmets, e-tool, P38 can opener…..use whatever’s at hand, and as long as the bad guy isn’t there afterwards call it a win.