AJ+
“An American, Douglas McAuthur McCain was killed fighting for the Islamic State group (formerly known as ISIS or ISIL) in Syria. He’s not the only American to have been killed fighting for foreign armies and groups recently. But is any of this legal under US law? The answer might surprise you.”
I think it needs to be tolerated — except in the case of a declaration of war — because it constitutes, to some degree Freedom of Speech … as also probably most charitable donations.
There have been terrible selective prosecutions of muslims (remember the waterproof socks) for things that probably could easily have been ignored — in cases where the argument seemed to be that they really really wanted to “get some guy they couldn’t make a case on” or to “send a message” — both egregious and great fodder for the cultivation of “Home Grown terrorist” everyone has been expecting to show up any minute now for years — and oddly the Tsarenevs really didn’t fit the BOLO, imho.
We have a lot of immigrant who came here as refugees from countries ruled by tyrannical regimes and I think it’s a terrible burden on immigrant communities to have to publicly align themselves with (often changing) state department policies — when in fact, they may see hope for their future in conflicts where we are supporting the status quo — At very least, if we are going to actually prosecute people for “aiding the enemy” to those enemies need to be formally declared … the term is again being used casually and the list has grown so long and the varied statuses so great, I fear Americans and resident aliens may soon find their freedom to travel either restricted or “at your peril” — our freedoms are supposed to be inalienable, not situational. The discipline of needing congressional declaration might slow down some of our adventurism or favors to friends.
Remember that numerous Americans join the IDF and fight with Israel. THIS is not controversial because IDF is an American tag-team.
Well, I don’t know if it was legal but Americans enlisted in the Canadian Military to fight for England in WWI and also in WWII before the U.S. got involved in those conflicts. Guess it depends on who the enemy of our friend is or the enemy of our enemy of….oh well, you get it.
Americans serve today in the British army and French Foreign Legion as well (service in the latter for 5 years earns one a French/EU passport, if desired). They seem to stay off the radar and are tolerated by all sides. Last time I inquired, non-citizens today cannot enlist in the Canadian regular forces but can join their reserve units.
I would like to know how many US citizens serve in the “IDF”.
US Army has and has had numerous foreigners serving especially on times of war.. The foreigners get besides the salary the change of getting citizenship and other rewards. If that is legal and desired, why could not an American join the Chines Army, for example., with equal terms.. The democracy excuse is not valid with this topic because because armies are never “democracies”, not the Chinese, not the Israeli and certainly not the American.