President Obama ordered airstrikes on Islamic State forces in Syria this week. But there was one more very unfortunate thing for the Islamic terrorist group to get out of the way while Obama is president:
Jan. 20 (UPI) — The Islamic State destroyed parts of an ancient Roman amphitheater dating to the second century A.D. in the city of Palmyra, Syria, state-run media reported Friday.
The façade of the Roman Theater and the Tetrapylon, a monument of pillars, were demolished with explosives, SANA news agency reported. Each is a famous and archeologically significant part of the ancient city, designated a UNESCO Heritage Site. The destruction came two days after IS killed at least 12 people in Palmyra, SANA said.
The Islamic State may be on its heels in Mosul right now, but it retook Palmyra last month from Syrian government forces.
Its rapid and unexpected rise in 2013 and 2014, and its sudden eclipse of al Qaeda as the world’s main Islamic terrorist threat, seems like a clear example of Western military and intelligence officials’ lack of imagination and inability to think ahead more than one move. Obama, who ran for re-election in 2012 on a platform of having largely eliminated the main terrorist threats to the United States, famously did not see this one coming.
