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More than two months after the US launched a war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the Department of Defense announced the first American fatality related to the campaign, although not in combat. Nineteen year old Lance Corporal Sean Neal was killed in Baghdad. He was one of thousands of US troops that have been sent to Iraq to train and advise Iraqi forces.

The US has also recently overseen the formation of a new Syrian rebel group to counter ISIS in Syria while remaining opposed to President Bashar Al Assad. House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, said on CBS’s Face the Nation yesterday that unless the US sent in ground forces for combat, the war against ISIS would last decades.

Meanwhile a State Department official announced during a trip to the UK that the US was considering bombing oil pipelines under ISIS control in order to stem the financial flow into the hands of the rebel group. The US Treasury Department claims that ISIS is reaping an estimated $1 million a day in illegal oil sales.

GUEST: Stephen Zunes, a Professor of Politics and International Relation at the University of San Francisco, where he directs the program in Middle Eastern Studies.