It is February 2026. We were promised flying cars. We were promised a cure for everything. We were promised that the future would be bright and shiny. But look around. The only thing that shines is the glare off a missile casing. The **US military announced a new round of airstrikes in Syria**, confirming that while technology advances, our foreign policy remains stuck in the same decade.

Yes, you read that right. **Syria**. Again. Still.

If you feel like you are stuck in a time loop, you are not alone. It feels like we have been reading headlines about **US forces targeting ISIS** since before half of the soldiers fighting there were even born. The news dropped right around Valentine's Day. While you were buying overpriced chocolate and wilting flowers for someone who probably barely tolerates you, the military was busy delivering their own kind of gift.

They say this was **military retaliation**. Back in December, there was an ambush. Two American soldiers were killed. An American civilian interpreter was killed, too. That is a tragedy. It is always a tragedy when people die in the dirt for reasons they probably don't fully understand. But let’s look at the timeline. The attack happened in December. The **payback airstrikes** happened in mid-February.

That is a two-month gap. Why the wait? Were the generals busy? Did they lose the paperwork? Or does the machine just move that slow? Maybe they were waiting for the Super Bowl to be over so people would pay attention. Or maybe they were waiting for the Super Bowl to be over so people *wouldn't* pay attention. It is hard to tell these days.

The target was the **Islamic State**. Remember them? The bad guys we were told were "defeated" years ago? Politicians love to stand on aircraft carriers or in front of flags and tell us the job is done. They tell us the enemy is gone. They tell us we won.

But here we are in 2026, dropping bombs on the same group in the same desert. It turns out, you can’t kill an idea with a bomb. You can’t shoot a concept. ISIS is like mold in a damp basement. You can scrub it. You can paint over it. You can pretend it isn't there. But if you don't fix the leak, the mold comes back. And let me tell you, the leak is not fixed. The whole house is rotten.

This is the part where the people in charge expect you to cheer. The Right will say we are showing strength. They love a good explosion. It makes them feel tough. They think dropping bombs solves everything. If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. And they have a really big hammer.

The Left isn't any better. They pretend they hate war. They march and they yell when the other team is in charge. But when they are holding the keys? The drone strikes keep happening. The **defense budget** and spending for weapons keeps going up. They just use nicer words to describe it. They call it "kinetic action" or "targeted strikes." It sounds clean. It sounds like a medical procedure. It isn't. It is fire and death.

And what did this accomplish? We blew up some targets. We broke some stuff. Maybe we got the guys who planned the ambush in December. Maybe we didn't. We will never really know. The military says it was a success. They always say it was a success. Have you ever heard a general come out and say, "Well, we missed, and it was a huge waste of money"? No. They grade their own homework. And they always give themselves an A-plus.

Meanwhile, the money keeps flowing. Think about how much one of those airstrikes costs. Just the fuel. Just the explosives. It is millions of dollars. Gone in a second. Poof.

Then think about the potholes on your street. Think about the school in your town that has to sell candy bars to buy books. Think about how expensive your groceries are. They tell you there is no money for that stuff. They say we have to tighten our belts. But when it comes to blowing up a shack in the Syrian desert? The checkbook is always open. The credit card has no limit.

Nobody learns anything. That is the saddest part. We do this over and over. We get hit. We hit back. They get mad. They recruit more people. They hit us again. It is a wheel of misery. And the only people getting rich are the ones selling the wheels.

So, spare a thought for the soldiers who died in December. They deserved better than to be pawns in a game that never ends. And spare a thought for the interpreter who died with them. But don’t let the suits in Washington trick you into thinking this retaliation fixes anything. It doesn't fix a thing. It just resets the clock until the next time.

Happy Valentine's Day. The war is still on. It never actually turned off.

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### References & Fact-Check * **Original Event**: US Central Command confirmed a series of airstrikes in Syria in February 2026 targeting ISIS operatives. * **Casualties**: The strikes were a retaliatory measure for a December ambush that resulted in the deaths of two US troops and one civilian interpreter. * **Source Authority**: For the official report on these operations, see the [NPR Report: US military reports a series of airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria](https://www.npr.org/2026/02/14/nx-s1-5714552/us-islamic-state-syria).