Western officials in general, and US officials in particular, have been trying to portray the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as simply “nihilistic and valueless evil” which doesn’t warrant serious consideration. That attitude continues in the face of growing numbers of Westerners heading to Iraq and Syria to join, and fight for, ISIS.
The exact size of the Western contingent fighting for ISIS is a matter of no small speculation, but with reports of yet another American killed in the fighting on ISIS side, the second of the week, and 15 Australians along with him, the number is likely larger than anyone expected.
Those fighters are not insignificant in recruiting more fighters from the West, with a presumed Briton beheading US journalist James Foley adding to Britain’s worries about how many fighters there are in ISIS, and what happens if they eventually return home.
Thousands are believed to have come from EU nations, primarily France, while some US estimates recently have put the number of Americans at 300. That’s pretty speculative, and many of the names appear to be totally unknown.
While Western officials threaten anyone who goes off to fight with ISIS with arrest, prosecuting them is pretty difficult as officials struggle to prove exactly what people did when they went to Syria.
The far bigger problem may be the recruitment pool ISIS has yet to tap, as a new poll from ICM shows surprisingly high favorability ratings for ISIS in Western Europe. In France, 27% of people aged 18-24 view ISIS favorably. That’s actually a fair bit better than French President Hollande is polling these days.
Though some criticized the data as being collected for a Russian media outlet, ICM Research is actually an extremely reputable research company in Western Europe, and is commonly used by major British media outlets as well.
It’s not clear exactly what is so attractive about ISIS, but the dismissive attitude, and laws which have British Muslim clerics afraid to mention ISIS even in negative discussion for fear of winding up detained as a suspect, are definitely not helping matters. For many officials, the why of ISIS’ allure is unmentionable, which means discouraging their recruitment remains a purely blunt force exercise, and one that’s clearly not working.
None of these so-called "Westerners" are Westerners. They are just the product of an insane immigration policy controlled by cultural Marxists who invite the third world in to advance their own agenda.
These (immigrants) from the (third) world aren't making
USG/EU (western) policies. Mr. Oboomer tap dances for his
Zionist, neo-liberal, and neo-conservative puppet masters
with deep pockets, bankrolling his corrupt regime.
"None of these so-called "Westerners" are Westerners."
Not true. For example, the American in question this time was African American, born and raised right here.
My bad on that one particular guy Mark, but a great many of them are.
It's one way to solve the immigration issue, little by little. But what are the rulers of the universe going to do to get all these rotten folk back to the West?
The other function of ISIS is to face the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the other function of and by the west is to let that happen, otherwise the Turkish government Air Force can take out ISIS in northern Syria helping the Syrian government.
What goes around comes around, west needs to be struggling, west needs to be understand and see what they have created, a enemy to the mankind, a fascist regime of caliphate dated to 500BC, that shows the west politicians being intelligent but not by much just that much, where they are unable to see the different between ISIS and Saudis/UAE and their regimes of one man one rule, they just don't call it caliphate they practicing it as kings and kings and prince.
“While Western officials threaten anyone who goes off to fight with ISIS with arrest, prosecuting them is pretty difficult as officials struggle to prove exactly what people did when they went to Syria.”
Oh, I’m not so sure about that. With the advantages of secret courts, secret laws, secret evidence, and a pliable MSM, successfully prosecuting anyone should not prove that much of a problem.
And even if it is, the Emperor has the power to kill anyone, anywhere, at any time he feels the urge to do so, which avoids the need for such quaint inconveniences as a trial.
Western society allows all our corrupt governments to do all this death and destruction in the Middle-East and expresses not hardly a complaint, most knowing full well that it is a boon to our economy, proof for an absolute that our fake morality makes us the most permiscious and greed driven people on the face of the earth.
For a fact, be prepaired for this to be the ultimate conclusion and downfall of our Empire USA.
wages always draw the unemployed, the guns and team stuff are a bonus to the disenfranchized.
There is a saying: when you win then you sing. Bush fascism regime did sing, Obama trying to sing but he can't remember what was the song. He is been fooled knowingly or not by the Saudis/UAE following their demand in regime change in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, now the Saudis and UAE barbarians are on the march where not only Barack Hussein Obama have no strategy but his policies is not about having strategy, his policies is about doing nothing for what his and Hillary Clinton policies created, the ISIS. Is a favoritism politics, we started it, if you win us your if not then is your loss.
For USG/empire what is left is his militarism to get the hell out of Middle East and take his creation, the 20th century bulldogs ISIS, the Saudis/UAE barbarians with them. There is no place for non humankind in 2014.
“nihilistic and valueless evil” This is called projection. The US empire has been the greatest force of evil on Earth since the collapse of the USSR. As far as the appeal of ISIS. It isn’t hard to figure out. The US has been waging war on brown skinned Muslims killing them by the hundreds of thousands since the 70s in order to control resource access and markets. ISIS is seen as opposing the hegemon. Not sure how true this is considering how much help the MIC has given them but it is certainly a sad ugly mess.
Wars always bring out the young, the unemployed, and the disenfranchised and sees them go off in search of adventure and fortune, or driven in no small part by some brand of idealism. We saw the same thing happen during the 30's with the Spanish Civil War drawing quite a lot of American into the anti-fascist ranks- so many that they had their own units within the International Brigade. With Islam on the rise, and ISIS claiming to be the vanguard of the Muslim world, it is no wonder that religious idealism would fuel many Westerners' desire to be 'a part of something' they would never see at home.
The sad part about this is, just as happened to the American veterans of the Spanish Civil War, when they come home they are likely to be jailed or blacklisted by the government. The SCW vets were treated as Communists, since they were largely armed and led by the Soviets against the German-backed Nationalists, and to this day the few remaining veterans haven't gotten proper recognition for their efforts. If at some time we ally with ISIS to defeat Syria, or even Iran, I wonder if those Americans who fight in the ISIS ranks will be similarly treated?