Taliban, Taliban?

[angelcarrot]

In my terrorism class, I often found myself flashing back to ninth grade English, when we discussed the Romantic philosophical movement. It generally consisted of young men, going off into the woods, becoming ascetic, writing poetry about blue roses (it's possible I'm making that bit up) and generally seeking all the answers from a wacky guru in

Comments

[fancytitle]

They die because of the responsibilities of marriage? Explain?

[angelcarrot]

the romantic movement would die because of marital responsibilities, not the people themselves. The whole "get a job, support your family" thing not really being compatible with being an ascetic eccentric in the woods.

[fancytitle]

Percy Bysshe Shelley was a happily married romantic poet.

But I meant this one - "Generally, they don't live past 35, thanks to Taliban accessorizing, or the responsibilities of marriage"

They leave the Taliban movement to settle down and raise their families? They are allowed to leave the Taliban to marry and raise families?

[angelcarrot]

Percy Bysshe: One man does not a movement make, it is my understanding that he was more the exception than the rule

[fancytitle]

Also, the Taliban is not in Syria, it is in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Do you mean terrorist groups in general? If so, then I'll add that almost all of the 9/11 hijackers were over 35 and married with kids.

I'm finding it hard to understand how a terrorist can quit to become a responsible husband and father without dying. Or do you mean leaving for a suicide mission to bestow wealth on the family?

[angelcarrot]

I wish the Taliban were merely limited to Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to our Terrorism experts, Syria has some of the largest growing franchises now. It's not like they can only operate where they are zoned, that's just where we are fighting them

[fancytitle]

I think you mean Al Qaeda when you refer to the Taliban. Al Qaeda has franchises all over the Middle East, but the Taliban is a distinctly Afghan movement.

Were you originally comparing young European men who went off to join Al Qaeda with young (upper class) European men joining the Romantic movement?

[angelcarrot]

Yeah, I realized halfway through that I was getting the two confused. Thanks American indoctrination. I probably failed that bit on my final, too, equating Taliban and Al-Qaueda.

And yes, I was discussing the European phenomenon of "radicalization," though a lot of it doesn't necessarily depend on Geography.

[fancytitle]

It's OK. I had a horrible geography and history teacher in 9th grade who spend the whole year on Africa and the US, and just stopped there. The rest of the time we spent watching Austin Powers and Monty Python in his classes, and while it was fun at the time, I'm pretty pissed at him now. Most of my info on the Middle East I now get from Noah, but I should do my own research.

It is an interesting phenomenon of radicalization, and I didn't even realize that young European men were going off to join Al Qaeda until I read your article. My guess is that drive to go off and join a radical movement is to get away from ennui.

[angelcarrot]

I encountered a similar phenomenon when I was in both India and Taiwan. I'd meet American men (usually) who had come seeking some guru. The guru in Taiwan always seemed baffled by them coming and would answer their questions with common sense, which they would then treat like holy writ