"The Taliban Is Running Low on Foreign Fighters " Topic

"Just a few years ago, the Taliban was one of the two prime Islamist militant groups—the other being Al Qaida-aligned insurgents in Iraq—for foreign fighters around the world to enlist with. But with the self-proclaimed Islamic State on the warpath and new conflicts in North Africa, the Taliban has become less attractive.

Specifically, the Pakistani Taliban. That's the subject of a new report in CTC Sentinel, West Point's counter-terrorism newsletter.

As of July 2008, the Pakistani Taliban included around 8,000 foreign fighters, notes Raza Khan, a political analyst who authored the report. These fighters came from western Europe, the Middle East, China, Russia, India, and central Asian countries, particularly Uzbekistan. But today, only a few hundred remain…"
Full article here.
link

It's difficulty for me to understand how a person educated in a Occident country ending offered as a volunteer for the Taliban or ISIS.

Amicalement
Armand

I used to know an African-American gentleman who went to Civil War reenactments dressed as a Confederate general.

From the bits of interviews, documentaries and so forth that have been done on the topic, it seems they tend to feel that either their home countries are at war with Islam or that they believe in fighting holy war, placing their faith over their secular concerns.

I'm sure some join for all the reasons people usually go to war: Boredom, adventure and shotgun weddings.

(and this isn't the time to jump up and down to explain to me why they are evil. I'm not defending anything, just explaining motivations)

Just so long as we kill them fast enough.

It's been my experience that people who are exposed to an ideology that they finally embrace in adulthood are much likely to be more fanatic and/or militant about it. Not always in a bad way, of course.

You recruit the children of first generation immigrants who already feel alienated, simply because they are teenagers, or recent college grads who might have trouble getting a job. You promise them cars, money and give them a gun and a cause to fight for. ISIS's media team is well versed in putting up slick videos on the internet.

Telling them sex is dirty, shameful and forbidden, but they can keep all the kuffar women they can catch as sex slaves has got to be a motivator for some. The male sex drive, properly harnessed, is one of the most powerful forces known in human society.

Attrition … has been a factor in warfare since sticks & stones were high tech …

Winston Smith
Just so long as we kill them fast enough.

I totally agree … However, it's not very PC, etc. … so be careful you or I don't get "snip"ed or DELETED !

I think a very large level of unemployment of males between the ages of 18 and 37 is a tremendous factor in this across all of these regions. I am extremely fearful of the day (albeit not too soon) when we no longer have the dependency on oil like we do now and what kind of chaos that will create. This is a problem that will continue to last many lifetimes unfortunately for everyone.

I don't see that prognostication as a given, @Rouges. There are millions of "Westerners" who want what we have for everybody currently not so privileged. "The good life" of material abundance is certainly capable of being implemented everywhere, especially since expanding into new markets is the life blood of capitalism, i.e. it's in the self interest of the "West" to make available the commodities of "the good life". Religious and political bigotry and fundamentalism fade to almost a nullity when material prosperity increases, I would even say proportionally. People have no interest in being told/commanded what to do, or how to think, when they have material prosperity with the opportunity to get more. All people need is hope that tomorrow they will have earned more than they have today. Certainly the c. 1,600 billionaires of the earth understand and appreciate this, and it is not in their best interests to try and tyrannize the greater masses, but rather to control them through a shared economic system that allows ownership of property, and jobs that increase access to the same….

I think a very large level of unemployment of males between the ages of 18 and 37 is a tremendous factor in this across all of these regions. I am extremely fearful of the day (albeit not too soon) when we no longer have the dependency on oil like we do now and what kind of chaos that will create. This is a problem that will continue to last many lifetimes unfortunately for everyone.

Let's see here… When we no longer care about oil from the Middle East, all those stupidly-rich families that have done nothing to create jobs outside the petroleum industry are going to see huge riots. Hopefully they smash the house of Saud, but those families have been very successful at diverting blame for all their own policy failures onto the US.

It's probable that those stupidly-rich families will continue blaming the US for their own failures, but the lack of influence&income will make them a much smaller threat. Though sadly I have recently read a couple studies that seem to show that Islam itself is not compatible with a modern nation. I need to dig into those studies further, make sure that their methodology is actually giving useful information, not leading questions and cherry-picked data to 'prove' the idea.

People have no interest in being told/commanded what to do, or how to think, when they have material prosperity with the opportunity to get more. All people need is hope that tomorrow they will have earned more than they have today. Certainly the c. 1,600 billionaires of the earth understand and appreciate this, and it is not in their best interests to try and tyrannize the greater masses, but rather to control them through a shared economic system that allows ownership of property, and jobs that increase access to the same…

The problem with that statement is the existence of people who desire to control others more than they desire material prosperity. And there are a LOT of those in the world.

Wellll, I see chickens coming home to roost.
Remember who made friends with who here.
I'm of the opinion we (as westerners) we need to reevaluate who we are as a peoples, what we want (actually let's be less greedy and say 'what we need') and start fixing this with out having butter still on our fingers and our belts undone from Sunday lunch before we start talking.
And the megarich need to start doing job wise instead of talking, if not a more meaningful tax regime and less wasteful governments ( high tech arms procurement is just plain theft IMO more and better goods for a realistic price).
OK enough of my moralising and hopefully more accurate fire against those barbaric blaggards, they are not deserving of any pity.
Heck I think I moved one step beyond correctness here, but not sorry to say.