Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Western fighters are joining the Kurds to fight ISIS. Yahoo/AP

Jordan Matson (right) is a 28 year old American fighting against ISIS. Yahoo/AP.

Westerners have joined the fight against ISIS by joining with the Kurds in Iraq. Yahoo/AP. Among them is Jordan Matson, a 28 year old American from Wisconsin. Matson joined the fight after seeing how ISIS had treated Kurds and Yezidi. Unhappy with the level of support the United States government was giving the Kurds, Matson joined the fight himself. Matson is among several Americans and other foreigners fighting with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). It is unclear what ramifications these volunteers could face. Although the YPG is not considered a terrorist organization, the Kurdish Workers Party (PPK) is working closely with the YPG and is considered a terror group. The YPG is trying to recruit more western fighters, along with the "dozens" they have already through their facebook page, The Lions of Rojava. 

My Comment:
The Lions of Rojava facebook page can be found here.

I'm from Wisconsin so it is interesting to me that someone from my state is fighting against ISIS right now. The facebook page is also pretty slick. There are a bunch of pictures and videos of fighters and some of these western folks as well. The YPG is an integrated force so some of those fighters are women. It makes sense that Americans would want to fight with the YPG since their values are a lot closer to ours then most other groups in the region. And many of these guys are former soldiers who may feel responsible to the people of Iraq after the invasion.

Is it a good idea? Honestly, I am not sure. The Kurds need foreigners, especially ones trained in combat, to help give them some expertise, so it is obvious what they get out of it. And anything that weakens ISIS is probably a good thing. But there are a lot of questions that this brings up. What happens if one of these guys ends up killed? What if they get captured? What happens if one of them goes nuts and kills a bunch of innocent people? Do we send in troops to rescue these guys if they get captured? Will the Kurds let them leave if they want to go home? Are the governments of Iraq and Syria going to raise a stink? 

If I was in the position to fight and had any military experience at all, would I want to go? Bringing the fight to ISIS does sound like a good idea but fighting for an organization that has no link to the United States bothers me a bit. It seems like a huge risk. a risk that goes beyond the normal risks of war, and that is really saying something. There are also legal issues to consider. As far as I know it isn't illegal to fight for a group like the YPG, but it still pretty shady. Having connections to a group that has connections to a terror group seems like very dicey proposition. Unless the government says "yeah, go ahead and fight" I wouldn't be comfortable with it. I won't question these volunteers bravery, or even their intentions, but I do wonder if the risks involved in fighting for a foreign power outweigh the potential gain. 

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