Senior Pentagon soldier to ISIS: Surrender or get beaten with entrenchment tool
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Pentagon's senior enlisted member has drawn the line against ISIS: "surrender or die!"
In a blunt warning to the remaining ISIS fighters, Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell said the shrinking band of militants could either surrender to the U.S. military or face death.
“ISIS needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them,” he wrote in a forceful message on Facebook. “So they have two options, should they decide to come up against the United States, our allies and partners: surrender or die!”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Troxell said the U.S.-led military coalition would provide them safety in the form of a detainee cell, food, a bed and due process if they give themselves up.
"If they choose not to surrender, then we will kill them with extreme prejudice...by dropping bombs on them, shooting them in the face, or beating them to death with our entrenching tools."
“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,” he continued. “Regardless, they cannot win, so they need to choose what it’s going to be.”
The post was shared Tuesday evening along with a photo of an entrenchment tool – a collapsible shovel used by the U.S. military. It also included the hashtag #ISIS_SurrenderOrDie.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Facebook post doesn't appear to be Troxell’s first time warning ISIS about the U.S. military’s intentions with entrenching tools if the terrorists don't give up.
During a stop in Afghanistan on a United Services Organization holiday tour last month, Troxell delivered a speech in which he said ISIS will be “annihilated, period!”
“That may be through advising, assisting and enabling the host-nation partners,” he said in a video recorded by a Stars and Stripes reporter. “It may be by dropping bombs on them. It may be by shooting them in the face. And it even might be beating them to death with your entrenching tool, but we are going to beat this enemy!”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Marine Gen. Joseph R. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Florent Groberg, a Medal of Honor recipient, were in attendance at the event.
As senior enlisted member, Troxell is assigned to serve as a voice for enlisted service members at the Pentagon, the Washington Post reported.
Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for Dunford and the Joint Staff, told the Post that Troxell’s comments emphasized the U.S.-led coalition’s resolve to defeat ISIS.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“His intent was to communicate the tenacity of the warrior ethos that, even when faced with the brutal and unforgiving nature of combat, will use every resource available to fight and win,” Ryder said of Troxell.