I just saw this short clip of an American who is fighting alongside Kurdish forces against ISIS. There have been a lot of news reports about people from Europe and elsewhere joining ISIS but I hadn’t heard of non-local volunteers for the Kurdish forces. Are there many Americans etc. fighting alongside the Kurds? I am curious what American dopers think of their countrymen (and countrywomen) taking up arms in this way.
I guess my first thought is ‘if he’s captured he’s fucked’, considering the fate of the Jordanian pilot burned to death this week. Other than that I don’t really have much of an opinion one way or the other…there have been several conflicts that Americans have individually decided to join in the past, including both of the world wars. As you noted, there have been Americans that have also like their European counterparts joined and fighting for ISIS, who are also taking their chances on eating a hellfire missile or something similar. I think a bit less of them, but it’s their life I guess.
I think it’s admirable and very brave. I hear mostly good things about the kurds when it comes to human rights, so he could’ve picked a much worse team to fight for.
I personally wouldn’t risk my life.
I think the guy is most likely a religious fanatic with a strong urge for war, like most people going off to fight for IS.
Here’s a Haaretz article about it: Kurdish Fight Against ISIS Draws Dozens of Westerners, Including Former U.S. Soldiers - Haaretz Com - Haaretz.com
Huh? A christian fanatic you say? The haaretz article says nothing negative about him or others. They say the kurds use facebook to recruit them, but that’s about it.
The article is just FYI. His being a fanatic is my opinion.
I think it’s pretty weird. I can’t put my finger on it, but it seems different to me than Americans joining the Canadian or British armed forces in 1939 or 1940.
Hey, anyone who wants to run off and fight ISIS is OK in my book because ISIS is rapidly climbing the rankings of evil people in my book, coming perilously close to things like “sadistic cannibal serial killers” and “Nazis”.
As for joining in with the Kurds - well, haven’t heard too much either bad or good about the Kurds, but, you know, the US did ally with a bad guy named Stalin during WWII to fight those Nazis I mentioned earlier, so it’s not like I have to be buddy-buddy with folks attacking those who are my enemies (and most assuredly that’s what ISIS is to me - what do you think they’d do with an outspoken female neo-pagan such as myself?).
If Americans want to fight ISIL, I’m all in favor of it.
There are 300M people in the US. If 3,000 Americans were fighting withe the Kurds (a ridiculously inflated number) that would be 0.001% of the population. I would be surprised if there were even 30, which would be 0.00001%. You could get that % of people to do almost anything.
I may applaud the Kurds in this endeavor, but there’s just something weird about an American running off to join them. These are probably a type of person I would avoid in day-to-day life.
At least they’re not the type to go join Isis!
Wait, isn’t he fighting against them?
Yes . . .
Glad Charlie Manson’s still locked up.
There were some stories about European bikers - as in outlaw bikers, one percenters - joining the Kurds. IIRC some of the German ones were ethnic Kurds, so that kind of makes sense, but I also remember at least one blonde and presumably non-Kurdish Dutch fellow.
There are ~15 000 kurds living in the US - I shouldn’t be surprised if a few of them wouldn’t want to go.
That plus some people just really, really dislike IS. Don’t see it much different from people joining the anti-Fascist forces in Civil War Spain.
I think the main difference there would be that the anti-Fascist volunteers in Civil War Spain were often Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Syndicalists, you name it. They weren’t just against Fascism - they were also for a rivalling ideology.
Not so much in the case of ISIS vs. the Kurds, where the non-Kurdish volunteers need not necessarily be ideologically involved with the Kurdish struggle, or even know very much about it. Like you said, I think they just “really, really dislike IS.”
Untrained, don’t speak the language, be more of a threat to your prospective comrades in arms than the enemy.
Keep in mind that not all one percenters are criminals - the one percenter subculture is certainly pro-individual, clannish, and anti-establishment, but they are not all out raping and pillaging. Otherwise, groups like Hells Angels would not be able to operate openly.
Sort of like how Stalinism didn’t exactly sparkle with the US during WW2. It was just that the US really, really disliked Hitler and was willing to cooperate with others who also didn’t like Hitler and were also willing to fight.
Ah yes, but I was talking about real Americans. 
Seriously though, if there’s some personal connection like that, okay, I can sort of see it. But I still say – and this especially holds true for the non-Kurds and others not even closely related – I’m going to avoid people with that sort of fanaticism.