Twenty-­six-­year-­old Kayla Mueller from Arizona is dead.

Apparently ISIS contacted her family, providing proof that she had been killed by them.

This makes four Americans executed by the jihadists.

Kayla was captured by ISIS on August 4, 2013 in Syria while leaving a hospital staffed by the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders.

She was in Syria to help suffering refugees.

President Obama said:

"The United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla's captivity and death.  ISIL is a hateful and abhorrent terrorist group whose actions stand in stark contrast to the spirit of people like Kayla."

The fact that these jihadists have been able to continue to murder civilians with impunity should trouble the entire world.

As Talking Points has mentioned, President Obama has received advice about terrorism from two former defense secretaries, advice he has rejected.

Sept. 17, 2014

ROBERT GATES, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: “The reality is, they're not going to be able to be successful against ISIS strictly from the air, or strictly depending on the Iraqi forces, or the Peshmerga, or the Sunni tribes acting on their own.  So there will be boots on the ground if there's to be any hope of success in the strategy.”

But Mr. Obama has said no to targeting ISIS from the ground. 

Oct. 8, 2014

LEON PANETTA, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: “He lost his conviction that we had to constantly go after terrorism, that we had to constantly be involved in a very troubled world because I think he really wanted to hopefully be able to focus again on this country and what needed to be done here.”

Mr. Panetta's statement is backed up by the president's own words yesterday:

OBAMA: “My first job is to protect the American people. ((EDIT)) But we also have to attend to a lot of other issues, and we've got to make sure we're right­-sizing our approach so that what we do isn't counterproductive.  I would argue that our invasion of Iraq was counterproductive to the goal of keeping our country safe.”

With all due respect to the president, this country is capable of attending to many issues at the same time and the war in Iraq should not impede effective strategy against Muslim killers.

To allow the jihad to continue its reign of terror without a solid plan strikes me as irresponsible and dangerous.

Last night I talked with David Axelrod, one of Mr. Obama's closest advisors.

He, like Secretary of State Kerry, believes that air power and a paper coalition will eventually "degrade" the ISIS fanatics.

I think Kayla Mueller might disagree.

And that's the memo.