Boys Will Be Boys: A Review of Dina Temple-Ralston’s "The Jihad Next Door: The Lackawanna Six and Rough Justice in The Age of Terror"

By Jeffrey Breinholt

Here’s a little secret: the United States government would rather Americans in search of adventure not travel abroad to join some other country’s army, to fight in wars to which we are not a party, or (worse) fight against U.S. soldiers where we are. Of course, there is a great romantic tradition of revered historical figures doing just that. Think of Ernest Hemingway, or George Orwell. Still, we now live in different times. The world has gotten smaller. We must do what we can to prevent the export of violence from our shores if we want to be taken seriously among the civilized nations of the world.

Some say that this goal is unrealistic, that the world is a violent place and we should not be too alarmed that individual Americans aspire to be part of it. The problem is that those who say this are often the same people who like to remind us that we helped arm the Arab-Afghan mujaheddin when they were fighting the Soviets, and use this as an indictment of U.S. policy. Are they correct about what we did in the 1980s? Absolutely. That story was fully documented in Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars, and in the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War.” It is all the more reason why we should learn from our unfortunate past and take steps not to repeat it.

So how do we prevent Americans from following their wanderlust if it includes going abroad to engage in violence? When they go and we find out about what they did, we cannot very well bomb them. Instead, we subject them with criminal prosecution, like we do people who cheat on their taxes. We say that they should take this not-so-secret prohibition seriously. Go to jihad training camp, go to jail. People on the bubble will hopefully get the message.

Read the rest of the this book review on the NEFA Foundation’s website.

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