Jihadists Killed Steven Sotloff Because of Who He Was

A concise --- and essential --- editorial on the murder of Steven Sotloff, at the Wall Street Journal: "Steven J. Sotloff":

Sotloff was not in Syria as an avatar of Western imperialism or American unilateralism. He was not an agent of any particular form of politics. He was killed because of who he was, not what he did. No change in America's Mideast policies will ever alter the fact.

That makes it all the more necessary for the U.S. to destroy the Islamic State, whether we do so with allies or alone. The murder of Steven Sotloff is a warning of what his killers intend not only against their other hostages, but against all of us. The response to ISIS must be to defeat it by killing its killers.