A “couple dozen” Americans in Syria
The Washington Times reports that US officials are concerned about the number of Americans who have departed for Syria to take part in the war there. The concern, of course, is that they’ll return more radicalized than when they left;
The State Department says it has no estimates of how many Americans have taken up weapons to fight military units loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad in the 3-year-old war that has killed more than 100,000 people. Other estimates — from an arm of the British defense consultant IHS Jane’s and from experts at a nonprofit think tank in London — put the number of Americans at a couple dozen. The IHS group says al-Qaeda-linked fighters number about 15,000, with total anti-Assad force at 100,000 or more.
[…]
At a Senate homeland security committee hearing this month, Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., said: “We know that American citizens as well as Canadian and European nationals have taken up arms in Syria, in Yemen and in Somalia. The threat that these individuals could return home to carry out attacks is real and troubling.”
Yeah, well, if they went to Syria, they were probably pretty radical in the first place.
Category: Terror War
I guess it’s just not Somalis from Minnesota going to fight in Africa, anymore??
Troubling, is it?
Then don’t let them back in.
I would not say that they were radical to begin with. It’s all about perception. Especially those with Syrian ties/ancestry the conflict is turning a tribal/clan oriented one. Family honor has a lot to do with it. Our intel staff has spitballed some of this and we believe that a lot will go over, do their duty, and return home to lead normal lives. That is not to say that there isn’t a threat, just that you can’t assign religious extremism as the primary motivating factor for all those that choose to go and fight in Syria. Some want to get their “Jihadi Street Cred” and be Billy Badass when they get home. Others are doing it out of either patriotic or familial obligations.