For the first time in perhaps a thousand years, there was a mass execution by burning, carried out by Islamic State in Anbar Province, Iraq. The town of al-Baghdadi, recently captured by the terrorists was the scene if thus horrific massacre and it appears most of the victims were members of the security forces.

Islamic State militants reportedly have burned to death 45 people in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi on Tuesday, just five miles away from an air base staffed by hundreds of U.S. Marines.

The identities of the victims are not clear, the local police chief told the BBC, but some are believed to be among the security forces that have been clashing with ISIS for control of the town. ISIS fighters reportedly captured most of the town last week.

Col. Qasim Obeidi, pleading for help from the Iraqi government and international community, said a compound that houses families of security personnel and officials is now under siege.

The reports come days after ISIS released a video purportedly showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians along a beach in Libya, sparking an international outcry, including commendation from Pope Francis, who called the killings "barbaric.”

Earlier this month, ISIS released another video showing a fleet of vehicles flying the black ISIS flag and driving through what is believed to be the streets of Benghazi, Libya. The video shows the vehicles being cheered by men, women and children as they drive by.

On Friday, a media group linked to ISIS released a four-minute video titled "Peshmerga Captives in Kirkuk Province,” which purportedly showed Kurdish prisoners -- imprisoned in iron cages -- being driven around on trucks in Iraq, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The imagery of the prisoner convoy in orange uniforms was similar to the scenes of an execution of a Jordanian pilot. In a video released by ISIS two weeks ago, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh was shown being burned alive in a cage.

The  juxtaposition of a State Department spokesperson claiming that we can't defeat Islamic State by killing them, that we must address the "root causes" of their anger by creating jobs and this incomprehensibly brutal incident is jarring - and a little frightening. The administration is living in a dreamworld of their own making - a deliberate effort to obscure reality because the comfortable assumptions that they have embraced for so long are proving unable to survive the evil that is being let loose upon the world. Better to turn away and think of something else than recognize the problem and deal with it.

Where will Islamic State be on January 20, 2017 when a new president is sworn into office? Thousands every month are flocking to their banners, they are getting richer, they are capturing more territory, and they are expanding. The idea of a caliphate - once contemptuously dismissed by our State Department - is becoming a reality for Muslims around the world.

And we are saddled with an administration who takes a community organizing approach to fighting them.