Photographs circulating on social media Monday purportedly show a special message from the U.S. military to Islamic State terrorists: ‘From Paris With Love.’
The photos, which have yet to be authenticated by military officials, emerged after France launched ‘massive’ airstrikes on ISIS targets Sunday in retaliation for the terror attacks that struck Paris last week, the Washington Postreports. On Monday, U.S. warplanes struck hundreds of trucks ISIS used for smuggling precious crude oil, the New York Timesreports.
Another widely circulated photo shows the same message scrawled across three GBU-31 guided missiles.
While there’s a significant possibility that these images are photoshopped (we’ve reached out to the Department of Defense to confirm the authenticity of these photos and will update this post accordingly when we hear back), it’s not out of the realm of possibility that military personnel might scrawl a message of solidarity on ordinance meant for ISIS militants. As the Washington Post points out, there’s a long history in the U.S. armed forces of decorating bombs:
After the 9/11 attacks, a slew of pictures popped up of bombs inscribed with messages for Osama Bin Laden and notes of solidarity for the New York police and fire departments. One message of note was prominently circulated by the Associated Press and shows a Navy sailor next to a bomb aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise in October 2001. On the bomb was a phrase that read “Hijack this” as well as an anti-gay slur. The image was quickly condemned by a number of rights groups and prompted an apology from both the AP and the United States Navy.
On a lighter note, in 2013, this image of Grumpy Cat and the word “Die” stenciled on the side of an airdropped munition went viral and subsequently inspired this VICE piece about the United States’ fascination with drawing things on war machines and the explosives they jettison.
Death by Grumpy Cat. Now that’s certainly something we can get behind.
Photos by Imgur/Reddit