ISIS beyond anything we have seen: US

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has signaled what is virtually a new phase in the "war on terror" — a Bush-era expression it had disdained — by pledging to go after the so-called Islamic State terrorists, whether in Iraq or Syria, even if it means putting its campaign against Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad on the backburner.
A range of US leaders and officials from President Obama downwards have indicated that the US gloves are off following the brutal execution of American photojournalist James Foley, and the Islamic State — specifically the terrorists who executed the journalist — can expect the whirlwind.
Asked if the Islamic State posed a threat to the US comparable to that of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said at a Pentagon briefing that the IS was "as sophisticated and well-funded as any group we have seen."
"They marry ideology and a strategic and tactical military prowess. This is beyond anything we've seen," he added.
While Hagel said the US military’s response will be to "take a cold, steely, hard look at" at ISIS and "get ready" for action, Secretary of State John Kerry called ISIS "the face of evil" and vowed that America "will continue to confront it wherever it tries to spread its despicable hatred."
Hagel was backed by the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey who acknowledged that ISIS had effectively erased the frontier between Iraq and Syria, and they "will have to be addressed on both sides of what is at this point a nonexistent border."
"This is an organisation that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision and which will eventually have to be defeated," Dempsey said in what was virtually declaration of a new war on terror.
Meanwhile, the US Justice Department announced that the FBI would be investigating the murder of Foley, with Attorney General Eric Holder indicating that Washington may deliver summary justice to the man now reviled as John the Executioner. "We will not forget what happened and people will be held accountable one way or the other," Holder said.
President Obama himself, pilloried for returning to a golf game after remarks commiserating Foley’s murder, gave enough indications that John the Executioner can start counting his days. "When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done," he said.
There was a subtle difference from his pledge in the aftermath of 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi when Obama vowed "to bring the attackers to justice." The FBI and a US Special Ops team eventually captured one of the ringleaders of the attack and brought him to the US to face trial. Indications are John the Executioner may not be so lucky to face due process.