Guest wrote:
> I've been wondering about something for a long time. During Afghan
> war against the Soviet Union, a lot of Arab countries, especially
> Saudi Arabia, were happy to see the more radical elements of their
> societies head off to Afghanistan to fight; hopefully to their
> deaths.
> Could Europe have turned a blind eye for a couple of years and
> allowed their more radical elements to leave Europe and join ISIS
> just to get rid of them, knowing that most would be killed in a
> few months? It seems plausible.
> And, like Afghanistan, it has backfired?
> What do you think, John? (Or anyone else on the board?)
The comparison with the Saudis sending Salafists off to Afghanistan to
fight the Christian infidels is very interesting, but I've never read
anything remotely like that in the European situation. One big
difference is that the Salafists were/are an existential threat to the
Saudi regime, but ISIS today is a terrorist threat but not an
existential threat to Europe. Europeans are much more worried that if
lots of young men leave to fight ISIS, then one or more of them will
come back and launch a terrorist attack, even if some others are
killed.