You are, I assume, an American. Or your readers certainly are. Anything is possible.
Uh, is the military in Spain trained by stereotypical pirates with Long John Silver accents?
Indoctrination/bonding/groupthink/brainwashing - choose your term, but, as I understand it, a major part of any sort of military activity is about creating and reinforcing group loyalty and commitment so that it becomes instinctive, just as much as fighting techniques. Isolating the group from the outside world is part of that, particularly if you’re setting yourselves up to change this world and secure a better place in the next.
You know what they say about when you assume…
Alessan is in Israel. Which has (kinda-)universal conscription.
Man, your record on assuming stuff isn’t so hot, is it?
Actually Alessan is a Hispanic name. I’ll let the original Alessan confirm what it actually is, but it sure doesn’t turn up in the first pages Google searches of Israel and turns up plenty of times in a Hispanic context.
Regarding the Straight Dope audience it’s a matter of simple observation that the vast majority are American.
Sarf Efrican sports like you are a rarity.
Tiganese, actually, but it’s a common mistake.
Is it? My parents are Spanish, and I’ve never heard of it.
Maybe a Central American or South American thing…?
Also, uh… If it was a Hispanic name, why did you assume the guy was American?
Could be short for Alessandro, I guess, but that’s Italian - the Spanish-language equivalent being Alejandro, which is generally shortened into Ale.
Whereas Dibble is a common South African surname…
you do realise how usernames work, right?
Don’t. Just … don’t. :smack:
Your Highness.
I apologise. I didn’t realise clicking on a user profile and using the reported nationality in a comment was in breach of LL rules!
In the United States, that’s certainly possible. But in other parts of the world, for instance in Europe, it is much, much more difficult to organize paramilitary training, learn all about firearms and explosives and practice shooting without being noticed almost immediately.
The German Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists of the 1970s and 80s had learned their trade in training camps which were run by the PLO in Jordan, Lebanon and South Yemen.
Dibble is a reference to an animal, right? Or am I misremembering? Happy birthday, regardless!
Naah, it’s a Pratchettism - “Dibbler” and variants were already taken.
Also, it turns out, a policeman character in some show called Top Cat that I’ve never seen. But I’d sooner cut off my posting fingers than name myself after a policeman…
I’ll cop to some ignorance about terrorist training camps.
My imagined view of terrorist trainees are guy who just don’t fit in anywhere else. They can’t make it in the real world, can’t hold a job, can’t get a girl. So they have this “romantic” vision of becoming a jihadist - “NOW they can’t ignore me!”
So it would be a big surprise if they got there and it was boot camp - close order drill, scrubbing the toilet with a toothbrush, etc. These potential warriors would be “you travel halfway around the word, and it’s the same old shit!” And, instead of glorious battle killing infidels, they end up doing the same menial job they ran away from. “I was a graduate of terrorist training camp, and they have me scrubbing toilets! That’s what I was doing at home!”
I wouldn’t think terrorist training camps would be anything like “some bearded dudes crawling under barb wire and rappelling up [sic] a wall.” For people with the mindset to become rogue soldiers, I wouldn’t think they could be convinced to got through an organized boot camp. I figure they wouldn’t have the patience. “Just give me a gun/bomb and let me at 'em!”
I can’t picture your stereotypical terrorist-wannabe sitting in a classroom watching an instructor show them how to make IEDs. The terrorist stereotype seems too…I dunno, anarchical, to sit still long enough. If they could, they might not have become the loner outsider that thinks becoming a member of the most hated group in the world was a step up.
But obviously that can’t be entirely true.
No, by Spanish-speaking noncoms who use “ar” (make that a size=8 ar, leather lungs being a requirement for noncoms in any army) to indicate the exact time of execution.
Vista derecha, ¡AAR!
Derecha, ¡AAAAAR!
Presen’eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen ¡AR!
and so forth
This certainly seems to fit the descriptions I’ve seen of Jihadi John, now that it’s known who he is.
Actually, they do. And it can go hilariously wrong.
Don’t allow yourself to wallow in ignorance ;).