If it hasn’t already happened, there’s a chance that sooner or later a RAAF crew aboard a Super Hornet high over Iraq will release a weapon that obliterates a teenaged jihadist from western Sydney.
We may never know. Knowledge of Islamist casualties mostly comes from what their comrades post on social media and that’s easiest when the comrades themselves aren’t fighting for their lives.
The government insists Australian troops engaged in training Iraqi troops will have no combat role so it’s unlikely but not impossible that Australian soldiers will encounter Australian jihadis.
Around 100 Australians are believed to be fighting in Syria and Iraq with terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS) with more than 20 killed but no-one knows for sure.
It seems would-be jihadis who aren’t on anyone’s radar can still exit Australia, though the Australian Security Intelligence Agency is getting a better handle on this one.
That was demonstrated by an incident in late March where a 17-year-old was stopped from boarding an Emirates Flight to the Middle East. He returned the next day seeking to board the same flight, demonstrating both persistence and stupidity.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told parliament she had cancelled passports more than 100 would-be jihadists and suspended foreign passports of 10 dual citizens.
“All too often I am approving passport cancellations or suspensions for a string of 16 or 17-year-olds seeking to travel, always with ludicrously large amounts of cash, bogus stories of holidays and frequently without their family’s knowledge,” she said.
In such cases, how do officials at Sydney airport know young Ahmad isn’t legitimately heading off to Bali?
It may well be there’s some profiling going on. It also seems more are being dobbed in by friends and brothers and sisters, indicating growing community awareness and willingness to act.
It’s useful to consider the desirable skills a 16 or 17-year-old Australian brings to an increasingly desperate insurgent force.
Beyond a white face for propaganda videos and an ability to drive, there’s not much. That was the total contribution of Jake Bilardi, 18, whose suicide car-bombing in Ramadi resulted in obliteration of himself and a Toyota Landcruiser but, according to Iraqi police, not much else.
The government has repeatedly warned that those lured to Syria or Iraq by the Daesh “death cult” face a high risk of violent death but that doesn’t seem to have proved much of a deterrent.
It has prompted a wide-ranging discussion of just what it is about the IS message that is so alluring and why it resonates in Australia, per capita the largest contributor of jihadists to IS.
Much has been written about the lure of IS and there’ll be much more.
A good primer is an excellent and lengthy article in the US magazine The Atlantic titled “What ISIS Really Wants.” Author Graeme Wood says IS has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers but, far from being un-Islamic, it’s religion derives from a coherent interpretation of Islam.
Central is the caliphate, the Koran-ordained pure Islamic state ruled under Islamic law. IS has declared just such a caliphate and urged Muslims from around the world to come on down. Many have done just that, though not that many of the technocrats, the engineers, doctors and administrators IS really needs to run its empire.
IS has developed a slick media operation which for the susceptible can be intoxicating.
This is hardly new - through the ages, the ideologically inclined have flocked to worthy causes. The cause celebre of the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War attracted more than 30,000 from 50 countries to fight fascism.
Large numbers of Muslims and some westerners joined the jihad against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s, from which emerged al-Qaeda and its offspring IS.
In some cases, western converts to Islam and IS appear to be lost souls who could just as easily have ended up in some dodgy religious cult.
IS has revelled in brutality and like many insurgent groups, it has attracted its share of psychopaths, given free rein to indulge their particular inclinations.
A US article suggests a simpler answer to explain IS’ appeal to many who are neither lost souls or psychopaths - they’re just bored.
IS offers young Muslims exhilarating opportunities to participate in a history changing great event sanctioned by God.
After all, prancing around with an Ak-47 in a worthy cause is much more uplifting than stacking shelves in Woolworths or studying for the HSC. IS recruiters appear adept at both picking their marks and couching their message as a religious obligation.
There’s plenty to indicate some Australian jihadis didn’t have a lot going for them in Australia, including lengthy criminal histories. Tony Abbott said at one stage 55 of 57 of those fighting with IS were on some form of welfare including the disability support pension.
Then there’s the logistics. For western jihadists, Syria is far more accessible than Afghanistan. IS has well-established procedures for meeting newcomers in Turkey and whisking them across the border into Syria.
Some western jihadists are avid users of social media and their posts, complete with abundant selfies and gangster commentary, suggest a comfortable life behind the lines - hence the description “five-star jihad”. One photo even shows a group of British jihadis frolicking in the pool of a luxury Syrian villa.
Heck, with that on offer who wouldn’t want to go off and join IS. This is clearly a recruiting ploy, which makes no mention of the downside, such as dying painfully of septicemia after being eviscerated by a shell fragment.
With Turkey cracking down on transiting westerners and the conflict intensifying, the best days of five-star jihad are over.
There’s another factor, mentioned in an interesting piece on the Foreign Affairs website.
Far from the asceticism of al-Qaeda, IS procures sexual partners for its fighters, either willing western Muslim women whose contribution to the cause is marriage and housekeeping, or sexual slaves.
A report by Amnesty International says possibly thousands of captured minority Yazidi women had been forcibly married, sold or given as gifts to IS fighters.
There are reports of IS-run brothels. IS has even produced an appalling pamphlet outlining permissible practices including a master’s right to promptly deflower a new virgin slave and providing religious justification.
So, for a western teen, IS offers adventure in a pursuit of a higher cause - plus the prospect of getting laid.
This article first appeared in Australian Defence Magazine VOL.23 No.5, May 2015