Via Department of Defense:

Statement by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on U.S. Casualty in Syria

I am deeply saddened by the news on this Thanksgiving Day that one of our brave servicemembers has been killed in Syria while protecting us from the evil of ISIL. It is a painful reminder of the dangers our men and women in uniform face around the world to keep us safe. Please keep this servicemember’s family, friends and teammates in your thoughts and prayers, and this Thanksgiving I hope you will join me in expressing thanks to all of our dedicated troops who selflessly protect us everyday.

According to various reports, this soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device in Ayn Issa, a town about 35 miles north of the self-proclaimed capital of ISIS, Raqqa.

This is a shame.

The rise of ISIS and the civil war in Syria can be laid squarely at the door of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the rest of the foreign policy staff that thought overthrowing Qaddafi was just grand and who then tried to pull the same stunt in Syria. This war and the ensuing carnage and the destabilization of the region and of Europe caused by the resulting refugee crisis never had to happen and, had American foreign policy been in the hands of anything other than a leftwing freshman dorm debating society it wouldn’t have happened.