This is indeed most interesting. Definitely a cut above the usual. I have always found these in-depth interviews with actual people far more educational than the usual theorizing and conjecture.
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"Abu Ibrahim, the most radical of his family, was not one of the lucky five of his brothers and had to stay in Syria, which did not go down well with his Bedouin wife. "My wife accused me of being a coward. She accused me of being happy that I didn't have to go."
"He is small and slight, but says he can fight five men alone. He keeps repeating that pride and honour are the most important things in life"
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Funny guy, he goes on and on about his fanaticism and ferocity yet at the same time he's henpecked. Do you suppose the real reason he went away, first to trade in Riyadh then fight in Iraq was just to get away from her?
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"But the Syrian authorities didn't want cross-border traffic in fighters to stop. The security services pressured them to keep sending people. "Why were they so keen for us to go and fight in Iraq?" asks Abu Ibrahim. "So we would die there?"
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Ya know? I think the Syrian and Saudi rulers believe in the "flypaper principle" even more than we do. All those energetic young men who might stir up trouble at home can go to Iraq and get themselves killed. After all, for decades the only allowed form of political self-expression has been to rail against the Great Satan and the Zionist Entity.
Then again, if those two countries had democratic governments with the rule of law those same lads might be doing constructive things like, y'know, building stuff rather than blowing stuff up and suchlike.
In my humble opinion its past time to JDAM Bashar and put the screws to the perfidious princes. We won't anger anyone who doesn't hate us already.
Fifty fighters went in total, Abu Ibrahim says now, but after a few months he returned to Syria with three others - the only surviving members of the group.
Syria was able to take 50 'troublemakers,' send them to Iraq, and end up with a mere four troublemakers at the end of the process. For the dictatorship, it's a clever way to kill off thier radicals while claiming a halo from other radicals for 'supporting jihad.'
I just wonder if there is a tipping point beyond which we won't tolerate those tactics.
"My wife accused me of being a coward. She accused me of being happy that I didn't have to go"
Could it be that the wives were delighted to be rid of these morons? Calling them cowards is an easy way to get them out of their cruel stupid lives.