So What Has Gone Wrong?

With the young men who have decided to align with, and do the bidding of, ISIS, I mean. What makes them turn against the land they were, for the most part, born and raised in?

Because that is what they are doing, turning against it. I was a young man in the mid and late sixties and I thought that was a terrible time with many of my peers turning against the U.S., supporting North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. After digging into it and talking with the occasional draft-dodger I ran into, I decided it was self interest that motivated them. A self interest that included a desire not to be killed.

There was also a desire to fit in, to be part of the crowd... To oppose the Vietnam War was popular. One could get support and comfort from the general public by being opposed to that conflict. And we are herd animals who like to be accepted.

But ISIS supporters are different. They do not profess to be anti-war, they do not chant of peace. They desire slaughter, they want to be part of the fight against "the Great Satan." They align with people who behead those who reject their religion. An extreme lack of tolerance, to understate it.

How do we fight that?