Gutsy marine challenges Islamic State on Twitter

LEXINGTON, Ky., Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Medal of Honor winner Dakota Meyer has some nerve. The former marine is calling out Islamic State militants on Twitter and Facebook after the FBI warned troops to lie low on social media.

"I'm tired of the warnings," said Meyer, 26, who served in the Marines for four years. "When I start having to change my life because I'm worried about something that could happen to me, that means terrorism is winning," he said. "I refuse to let these radical bullies change the way that I live."

The FBI issued a warning Sunday to members of the military to exercise caution to avoid anything that might attract attention on social media from "violent extremists," or reveal their identities.

Meyer's tweets and Facebook comments have gone viral. Some comments are provocative, such as when he calls militants "cowards." Some quips are funny, like the tweet in which he's dressed in a bathrobe and smoking a pipe, reading the Marine's manual, and inviting Islamic State militants to come over and join his book club.

"I just want us, as Americans, to stop living in fear and stop worrying about what they're going to do," he told ABC. "I want us to stand up against these people."

Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2011 by President Obama, and hailed as a hero for entering a kill zone during an ambush in Kunar Province in Afghanistan to search for missing American troops, and carrying out four bodies of friends.