Why would a US veteran join a terrorist group like ISIS?

2016-03-17T14:03:39-04:00

I'm been thinking on this for a few days. The latest incident with this ex-AF airman trying to train with Isis. He was caught trying to join Isis after getting out of the AF. I look at him as a trader. After all that has happened to the US and our service members fight over seas, plus the was the radical have done to civilians. Why would anyone want to go to that side and be a pawn or a trophy kill for them. He is no better then the one who ran away from his unit while in Afghanistan ( no name mentioned). Then you have cilivians here in America trying to join them, and this is happening with all races. What is really going on in there thoughts?

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 17 at 2016 2:56 PM

2016-03-17T14:56:13-04:00

... ... like Trump said ... we got a Muslim problem?? lol

Is radicalization ... it is hard to swipe that out.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 17 at 2016 3:47 PM

2016-03-17T15:47:40-04:00

I believe the first thing you need to understand is that larger and larger segments of the population are writing off the media completely, they simply don't accept that the information is accurate and/or in the proper context. They recognize that their being fed propaganda and then seem to naively assume that reports coming from the other side are not also propaganda.

People also need to be needed, they want their lives to have some sort of greater meaning and fighting for a religious utopia can give them that sense of importance. Never mind the fact that time after time it's been shown that mixing religion with government only increases the misery of the people governed.

Disillusionment, naivete, and ego... a very powerful combination.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 17 at 2016 4:42 PM

2016-03-17T16:42:55-04:00

People with nothing to belong to need to feel like they belong, even if it is with ISIS.
Here in Minnesota, many in the community ask why a young man (they are almost always young and male) would leave the good life that their parents have made for them to go back to Somalia and fight for Al Shabaab or one of the other factions. The recruiters that sell them on this are selling the notion that they have abandoned what they are to try to be American. This is true, in a way. We all had ancestors that left one way of life for another. The lure of both religion and nationalism is a strong combination.

Response by SP5 Mark Kuzinski made Mar 17 at 2016 6:55 PM

2016-03-17T18:55:46-04:00

Simple - No brains!

Response by SN Greg Wright made Mar 17 at 2016 8:40 PM

2016-03-17T20:40:10-04:00

He is a traitor. Full stop.

Response by SSgt Liam Babington made Mar 17 at 2016 11:02 PM

2016-03-17T23:02:24-04:00

Until one understands they dynamics of how a destructive cult works..and there is a good book on this subject that question will always be asked! Read (and get for your personal library) "Combating Cult Mind Control" by Steve Hassan. This guy is a defecto expert on the subject!!

Response by SSG Leo Bell made Mar 18 at 2016 8:27 AM

2016-03-18T08:27:26-04:00

Update like most of us said they are just trying to be part of something. Well this morning on the news and American turned hisself to the Iraq army. He joined the group Isis, got there , fought beside them and found out that he doesn't believe what there beliefs are. He had to escape and find someone to turn hisself in to. Now the American governments wants him because he holds allot of there information now and he can give them the person who recruited him.

Response by LTC Marc King made Mar 24 at 2016 12:39 PM

2016-03-24T12:39:58-04:00

Does not want to miss the opportunity to end up like this.....

Response by MSG Roger Mannon made Mar 25 at 2016 8:54 AM

2016-03-25T08:54:22-04:00

You've got yourself a really good question there. I remember joining the Army in 1967. The sense of pride in doing my duty for my country. That was my motivation. We were at war in Vietnam and I was born and raised in a time and place that taught young men the right thing to do was join the fight. Had I been a teenager living in New York or California those feelings might have been different. But I was from a small town in Arkansas and the idea of free love, drugs, opposing America's involvement in Vietnam had not settled in there yet. Maybe people join up for different reasons these days. College education is a good one. There are others I suppose.
I don't know there is an answer to your question. Might as well ask how a priest could molest a child or why a cop sworn to serve and protect could shot an unarmed man in the back. The world I grew up in doesn't exist any longer and the new world confuses the hell out of me. I wonder if we are teaching our children the values we were taught.
Thanks for the question though. Thinking about it makes my head hurt but I am absolutely certain more of us should be thinking about it and wondering if there is anything we can do to change things up a bit, somehow make it better.