helene_t, on 2019-February-24, 19:12, said:
Treason would be to join an enemy army. ISIS is not an army as they don't represent a recognized country. It's just a criminal gang. And not even an enemy of the UK, as they were supported by U.K.'s Turkish and Saudi allies.
This thing about not being a state is an issue that needs serious thought. Thy are organized, they control, or did control, territory, they have or had an aggressive agenda to control more territory. A non-lawyer such as myself is apt to say if it quacks it's a duck. If we need to alter existing law to deal with state-like organizations that perhaps are not technically states then I would say let's get moving on that. Exactly what should be done? I am not the guy to ask. But I don't think we want to be saying "Well, if they had a recognized government we would do such and such but since they don't have one then we will just have to let it pass by." If there is a technical legal point here then we should fix that technical legal point.
Is ISIS our (the U.S.) enemy?The laws have not, I think, entirely caught up with changed reality. In 1941 the U.S. declared war on Japan, Germany declared war on the U.S., the U.S. declared war on Germany .Three nations, and of course many others, making declaration of war. That's quite a while back. That's not how it goes anymore. ISIS is/was a governing body with territory and policies and we have been engaged in a prolonged military struggle with them .Sounds like an enemy. The U.K. can say the same. We should not be paralyzed by their technical lack of nationhood. They aren't.