I don't know. They are perhaps more like us than we are comfortable thinking. Many grow up in poverty and corruption. Maybe the only legitimate power they ever knew was the local imam? Those kids are ripe for recruitment by groups who puff them up with delusions of adventure, riches, and respect. That is a powerful message for the disenfranchised. Of course by the time they figure out that they are only killing other Muslims over money, land, oil, and power; its too late. I feel sorry for many of them.
But make no mistake, the game is on. They would kill me and if I had to I would drop the hammer and flip their switch just as quick.


P.S. Abu Alaa al-Afari may have just been killed in an airstrike.