j_mitso

I really wish this question had more upvotes because it's a really important one.

The link with poverty is actually pretty weak. It plays a role, but not to a massive degree. To my understanding the poverty link is more closely related to people being paid to shoot at our convoys, make IEDs, and go on suicide missions.

While individual motivations vary, there seem to be two generic reasons for why individuals join a terrorist group, and they seemed to be separated by gender:

Men: A strong feeling that their tribe/people/group has been unfairly attacked and taken advantage of. They must right the wrong that has been committed. (For a western example of this, see every keyboard warrior who has come out saying they're ready to go "blow off some heads in the middle east" because of Paris.)

Women: Shame and a sense of burden. They feel like they are a weight to those around them. For whatever reason, they have been ostracized by their family and this is their way out.

These mental states are the tinder Daesh recruiters set fire to. There's a lot more to it as this is truly a full subject unto itself, but these are some basic starting points.

Finances and culture.

No organization can survive without financial support. If you want to truly gut an organization, get rid of it's donors and revenue streams.

Same goes for culture. Every terrorist organization needs a population that is willing to tolerate it. It doesn't mean they like them, but they don't hate them enough to rise against them. If you change this, they are in a world of trouble.

For example, Daesh supposedly almost lost a city because they banned smoking and there were recent protests in Afghanistan because, in part, a 9 year old girl was beheaded. If you can get the population pissed off enough, there is nowhere left to hide.

Interesting point.

I would argue it's off the fact that we fear the things we don't understand most. Why are we afraid of the dark as kids? Because we don't know what's out there. It could be anything!

Nothing really changes as adults. Those who fear guns usually haven't held one in their life. Those who hate Muslims generally have no knowledge of them. As a personal point of interest, this is why I took a semester in college to go to my local mosque each Friday and join them for prayer. I even wrote a pretty sweet ethnography on it for my anthro class. That experience changed a lot of assumptions I had about them.

So bottom line, go toward the things you fear. If you fear guns, go to a range and fire one. If you fear Muslims, stop by your local Muslim-Arab owned eatery and talk with them. Sitting at home talking about things you know nothing about helps no one.

I do not support the bulk collection of US citizen communications.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-phone-record-collection-does-little-to-prevent-terrorist-attacks-group-says/2014/01/12/8aa860aa-77dd-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html

Edit: Just to be clear, this is not to suggest that I don't want there to be zero collection. But mass collection without reason just seems like bad form. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack while pouring in new hay every second. I don't know what the final answer is, but it must be realistic, balanced, and fit within our beliefs as Americans. That's a tall order that every country is struggling to meet, not just us.

Basically. But where our government can shine most is finances. Daesh is reported to make $3 million a day between oil, smuggling, human trafficking, and donations. If we want to kill them, we attack them there. They will always find new bodies to fill in the ones we kill.

Think of it as if you wanted to attack a castle that's completely fortified. Fighting it head on will be hard. Cutting off their food and water supply is much easier. You can beat them without firing a single shot.