Quote Originally Posted by AmericanPride View Post
David,

In your estimation, how much of this is the direct appeal of jihad or Islamism, and how much of it is the appeal of adventure, etc for young men? The 20th century alone is replete with young men joining foreign causes (IDF, French Foreign Legion, Spanish Civil War, South Africa, Nazi SS, etc). It seems to me like there are many who went abroad looking for that kind of experience, only to become disillusioned either with war, ISIS, or some combination in between. What are your thoughts?
I can only give an estimate about the UK.

It is important to note initially the main emphasis was going to fight in Syria, not Iraq; nor until relatively recently was ISIS the main destination.

Each case is likely to be different, whether it is an individual decision or a small group.

During the Syrian Civil War helping those under attack by the regime was the reason, allied with the apparently steady advance of jihadist groups who stressed jihad and then the pursuit of an AK47 adventure. Once it became apparent this was a horrible civil war, where fighting each other was more likely than fighting the regime, becoming a jihadist came to the fore.

My estimate is that with the public arrival of ISIS there has been a change as the "message" about the battlefield(s) in The Levant being the final battleground emerged. I have doubts that this message even featured before, very few Muslims appear to have acknowledged this factor.

One snag is that to date very few, if any, veterans from Syria have actually talked publicly - when hopefully their disillusionment would be to the fore. It is interesting that some groups and older veterans have advised against going.