After seeing that a few American’s have jumped into the battle on the side of ISIS, I am wondering if they are being paid or are they doing this for some religious agenda? Seems a sane man would not leave a family and his support obligation to go fight with some radical element without some form of payment. Who supports them, provides their medical benefits, rations, housing, etc.?
I’m sure that their commanders provide them with food, ammo and a roof over their heads. Besides that, they probably get the standard crusader benefits package - loot, slaves and all the girls they can rape.
I read on a US news website (though I can’t recall which one), that one potential foreign recruit was offered “$1,000 per month” to fight for ISIS.
This message board claims that fighters are paid from a few hundred to $800/mo.:
Apparently, ISIS is selling oil on the black market from several smaller refineries they’ve seized in northern Iraq at a profit of $1-3 million per day–which I assume is a major source of their wealth.
Payment is not necessarily what they are after.
A number of them are thoroughly convinced that doing is this absloutely right and that it is their only absolute duty. It brushes aside any other consideration or obligation. And they will get their reward in the hereafter. It trumps anything the world can give them.
It’s possible, though I imagine unlikely, that some local Middle Easterners might receive some financial inducement: people who are poor (not America-poor – poor-poor), for whom a few hundred dollars might be a meaningful sum.
There is no chance that any Americans are going there to fight for money, or that that would even be a consideration for them. What you’re giving up in *practical *wealth – that is, the overall material advantages of leading a safe life in a prosperous Western country, even if you yourself are not prosperous by that country’s standards – is too great to be made whole by any realistic offer from ISIS. They’ve got to believe it’s the right thing to do, or fun in some way.
It’s the Jihadi version of the Peace Corps and voluntourism. They get some support from religious groups, financial backers and possibly some governments but roughing it for the cause is part of the appeal.
Not new either, think of the Spanish civil war for commies in the 30s: International response to the Spanish Civil War - Wikipedia
"Volunteers from many countries fought in Spain, most of them on the Republican side. About 32,000 [99] men and women fought in the International Brigades including the American Lincoln Battalion and Canadian Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion, organized in close conjunction with the Comintern to aid the Spanish Republicans. "
"‘Spain’ became the cause célèbre for the left-leaning intelligentsia across the Western world, and many prominent artists and writers entered the Republic’s service. As well, it attracted a large number of foreign left-wing working class men, for whom the war offered not only idealistic adventure but also an escape from post-Depression unemployment. Among the more famous foreigners participating on the Republic’s side was George Orwell, "
It is important to pursue this question without first taking sides yourself. Recruits and/or enlistees have their own reasons for believing their side is justified, which are not always shared by the outside observer, and not many are soldiers of fortune. Before the hostilities, men are pretty much all the same and can be motivated by any persuasive call to arms.
I pledge to keep an open mind about the beheadings and executions and rapes and so forth. They probably have a really good reason for it all, which we just haven’t heard yet.
I’d need to hear about medical, dental and a 401K before I even consider it, of course. I will assume mental is not included.
Sometimes, in war, people do what is necessary to win the war, not just to observe the niceties of playing war by the rules. At least, I haven’t heard about them napalming children, or firebombing a city like Dresden, or using atomic bombs. Who beheaded Saddam Hussein?
They need money, and hold people for ramson, and demonstate the effect of refusing to pay the ransom. So, now yuou have haerd the good reason for it.
He was hanged.
Yes they think that will work.
What actually happens.
- They should know the USA will NOT pay ransom. France does. USA does not.
Odd for them to test the USA, but then the people making these decisions are probably not making distinctions between USA and France (etc).
2 So what is the Effect ? If they murder 1000 local prisoners of war on one day, the west does nothing… for years on end. But deliberately murder a westerner, the west bombs them and supplies their enemy… It would have been far better for them to not involve western (or any other) countries … when they involve other countries, they come back as their enemy.
This leads on to the idea that they want to trigger/ keep up war with the USA in order to feed their propaganda machine - its almost too absurd to write, but it seems they will say that “We need to fight now in order to fight off USA invasion round 3 !”
They’ve pretty much said themselves that they’re cutting Americans’ heads off because the US is bombing them and they’ll keep on doing it until we stop. Their e-mail to the Foley family before they beheaded him:
I don’t see any reason here not to believe them.
Oil may be fungible, and as the Arms Trader Sam Cummings said “The plainest print cannot be read through a gold sovereign or a rouble or golden eagle.”, however it seems strange that dealers would buy from ISIS.
Perhaps the USA should target these devoted free marketeers.
Here’s an article that discusses more about ISIS’ black market oil, including what entities are allegedly buying it.
‘Arial attacks and “proxy armies”’? So they’re upset because someone used a botnet to change all their fonts, or what…?
Sorry guys, you shouldn’t have used Comic Sans in all your literature if you didn’t want to face this kind of onslaught.