The news stories that I’ve seen, the Canadians going for this seem mainly ex-military actually. Language will be a problem of course.
Eta: doesn’t seem like people are signing up in droves or nothing anyway.
What I wonder is legally speaking, what makes fighting for ISIS or recruiting for them a crime but does not apply to those who fight for the Kurds?
Other than the fact the Kurds are on our side(ish), whats to stop these fighters be prosecuted when they return?
Personally, I think slapping any Isis fighters into the pokey immediately upon return and throwing away the key is just good policy.
ISIS is a terrorist org & enemy of the US, and the Kurds aren’t, except for the PKK, which is considered terrorist. That’s tricky, because they’re fighting ISIS too.
I’ll be curious to see if someone who goes off to fight these wars is more or less likely to engage in terrorism when they come back. The guy in the OP is already taking matters into his own hands because he feels the US isn’t doing enough. What happens when this guy comes home and decides the government isn’t doing what he likes?
Well, since that’s how I feel about anyone who eagerly voluntarily associates with any military, I’m in total agreement.
The YPG and PKK fighters are having some disagreement (the former considers the latter undisciplined). Joining the latter makes me more :dubious:.
I am generally okay with it. The government (as well as Netherlands, others) don’t condone it but figure as long as they aren’t fighting for enemies. War is often shades of grey but really YPG has done 99% good and ISIS has done 99% evil.
My biggest criticism is the same as the one in post #17. It’s like starting a job and quitting after getting training. If they are motivated by Into the Wild-style idealism and are in over their heads. Jordan Matson is well known as the American fighter and seems committed. Another guy went, lasted about a week, and regretted it. I don’t particular admire people who don’t know what they’re getting into (although I appreciate his honesty in not drawing it out and I guess it’s his dime mostly).
On a personal level, it’s dangerous to do. I think those Americans who want to help the Kurds take it to ISIS should petition the government to send in our military to assist the Kurds. If an individual wants to do it, we can’t stop them but by the same token the US can’t be expected to assist them should they get captured. So if I was asked to join the Kurds, I’d say “no whey!”
As long as they understand the risks and aren’t mentally ill or something, I don’t see why anyone should have a problem with it.
ISIS is a designated terrorist organization, like Hamas and Al-Qaeda. The Kurdish YPG is not.
As mentioned by someone else, the Kurdish PKK is considered a terrorist organization by most Western governments.
Yeah, but such people probably think petitioning is too weak an approach. And they probably doubt such a petition would do anything; doesn’t the government get numerous petitions for all sorts of things?
I was speaking in the more generic sense of the work “petition” meaning to request something as opposed to passing around sheets of paper. I agree, everybody ignores these but I would interpret contacting government officials as petitioning.
Volunteering to go off to fight in Kobani, say, is arguably not very different from going off to fight in Spain in the late 30s, as this piece in the Guardian argues. I wonder how much of the difference in the scale of commitment of foreign volunteers is due to the almost complete lack of awareness of the Rojava Revolution in North America, say.