The secret of ISIL’s appeal
It is often remarked that proponents of the prevailing international order, despite their rhetoric about freedom and democracy, eagerly support dictators, warlords and other autocrats in order to preserve the status quo. However, this tendency is no less pronounced in opponents of the system. For example, during the Cold War, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro inspired many Westerners in leftist movements, particularly young people, some of whom carried out campaigns of domestic terrorism in order to provoke revolution.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) similarly aspires to a new form of social arrangement. In this post-Occupy period, when no one else seems to have the willingness or ability to meaningfully fight the system, ISIL appears to many youths as virtually the only actor interested in and capable of radical societal reforms. Understanding this source of ISIL’s appeal is critical to countering its narratives, undermining its recruitment and ultimately defeating the group.
Beyond brainwashing
ISIL’s recruits are generally not stupid, ignorant or naive, nor are they religious zealots, nor are they somehow unable to resist social media messaging. It is comforting to write off ISIL supporters as deranged or brainwashed because it helps distract from the role the anti-ISIL coalition’s members played in creating and perpetuating the conditions under which ISIL could emerge and flourish, but the extensive post-9/11 body of research on terrorism clearly shows that, regardless of how a campaign may be framed, the primary reason people support terrorism is to achieve political goals.
For example, it is widely assumed that most suicide bombers are uneducated, mentally ill or otherwise cognitively deficient. Or that would-be martyrs are simply nihilistic (often from having few socioeconomic prospects) or are narcissists eager for notoriety. It turns out that those cases are the exception rather than the rule: Suicide bombers tend to be wealthier and better educated than most in their societies. In fact, it is their deeper understanding of societal problems that often impels their activism. And rather than sociopathic, they tend to be prosocial, idealistic and altruistic, driven by compassion and a sense of moral outrage.
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/6/the-secret-of-isils-appeal.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
(The link to this article from Musa al-Gharbi's article you posted as one of the "blue link" references...along with a couple other good reads. But, this article, while focusing on "Homegrown U.S. Terrorism," seems to me also fit why there might also be a strong appeal for those who want to join ISIL. This is a snip from the article...but I thought whole thing was an interesting read. It was propably already posted in DU "Foreign Affairs" sometime 
but worth a revisit.)
Is U.S. Foreign Policy Making Americans Less Safe?
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In Washington, there is an agreed-upon, bipartisan understanding that under no circumstances will officials or politicians acknowledge, or even explore, the concept that foreign policy activities might play a role in compelling U.S. residents, who would not otherwise consider terrorism, to plot and attempt attacks. This is somewhat understandable given that there are many different backgrounds, experiences, and precursors that lead people to become violent extremists. Yet, whereas there are constant hearings and debates—even White House summits—about how to “counter violent extremism,” there is rarely any consideration of which U.S. foreign policy activities might themselves be precursors to U.S. terrorism.
In fact, the only foreign policy decisions that the Obama administration admits might inspire terrorism are those made by Obama’s predecessor. The first is one that the White House has tried to reverse since January 2009: detaining terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Most recently, at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on March 18, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter endorsed closing the military prison because, “It still provides a rallying point for Jihadi recruiting.” The other decision is the 2003 invasion of Iraq; as President Obama stated on March 17, “ISIL is a direct outgrowth of al-Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion, which is an example of unintended consequences.”
Of course, another unintended consequence emerged from the U.S.-led airwar in 2011 that ensured the toppling of Muammar al-Qaddafi in Libya. As a U.S. military official told the Wall Street Journal today, “ISIL now has an operational presence in Libya, and they have aspirations to make Libya their African hub. Libya is part of their terror map now.” Compare this recent warning to how the State Department described Libya on the eve of the 2011 airwar: “The Libyan government continued to demonstrate a strong and active commitment to combating terrorist organizations and violent extremism through bilateral and regional counterterrorism and security cooperation, particularly on the issue of foreign fighter flow to Iraq.” Now, foreign fighters are flowing from Iraq and Syria to establish a stronghold in Libya. This is clearly an unintended, though not at all unsurprising, consequence, but not one that the Obama administration will acknowledge because it happened under its watch.
More critically, what foreign policy activities are bolstering the narrative of Islamic jihadist groups today? Is it really just the 122 terror suspects still in Guantanamo? What about drone strikes, which themselves are universally hated? Or, what of the support for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt, whose government sentenced that country’s first elected leader to death this week? Finally, is the U.S.-led airwar against IS fueling that narrative and making the likelihood of lone wolf attacks within the United States more likely?
What else is the United States doing abroad that could be making Americans less safe from lone wolf terrorism at home? Why is this never asked or considered when officials and politicians discuss how the thirteen-and-a-half-year war on terrorism is progressing?
More at....
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/us-foreign-policy-making-americans-less-safe-12920
