In the nine days since the fall of Palmyra (Tadmur), ISIS has rounded up government supporters and carried out mass executions, with the Syrian state media claiming over 400 killed, mostly women and children.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the basics of the story, affirming it had documented mass executions in the ancient oasis city, but putting the toll at 217.
Among the 217, the monitors said about 150 of them were captured members of the Syrian military seized during the fall of the region, with the rest civilians, including a handful of children.
The fall of Palmyra put ISIS even more deeply in control of central Syria, and has expanded their territory in the country to the point where they are estimated to control over 50% of the nation, by area.
And that's just the beginning. Poor people of Palmyra. Just waiting for these devils to kick down their door and drag them to their death. And the rest of the world? Where's Putin's "aggression" when you need it?
It's a near certainty that the USG and the American people will come to seriously regret what we have unleashed in the Middle East – and elsewhere around the entire world. The mistaken belief that all the death and destruction is going to stay "over there" is misguided and foolish. And we will have earned every bit of what is to come, for what we've (our government) done, and for what we (the American people) haven't done. Our children will surely despise us for what we've left for them to rectify.
Our "Exceptionalism" will become our children's shame.