DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
An Unvarnished Look at Americans 'Hunting ISIS'
May 29, 2018  | By David Hinckley  | 20 comments
 

When the History Channel gets serious, it can still offer solid stories like its new Hunting ISIS.

Hunting ISIS, a six-part series that premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. on History and then will air starting June 3 on Viceland, follows a small group of Americans who have joined up with the Kurdish military as unpaid volunteers in the fight against the Islamic State.

These Americans, who probably total around 100, are mostly ex-military themselves. Frustrated that the U.S. doesn’t have combat troops on the front lines, they’ve gone rogue and joined a team that does.

They’re doing it, they say, because they’re appalled at the atrocities committed by ISIS and they can’t abide sitting on the sidelines of the battle to push ISIS out of the cities it began capturing in 2014.

That’s one reason.

They also crave the action.

PJ, a 29-year-old volunteer, speaks not only for himself when he says he’s never found an adrenalin rush that matches combat.

Pete, 27, recounts how he returned to civilian life after tours of duty in the Middle East and found himself becoming an aimless alcoholic.

As a combat medic, he’s a prize catch here, and he says he finds purpose and satisfaction in saving lives of both soldiers and civilians.

He also says the whole situation is screwed up almost beyond comprehension and that in many ways that also describes him. He can call to mind the Christopher Walken character in The Deer Hunter, which is as scary as it sounds.

Equally scary: the footage taken by filmmaker Sebastiano Tomada during the two years he spent embedded with these U.S. fighters.

It’s raw stuff, and to its credit, History clearly realizes it needs no added hype to make Hunting ISIS a somber snapshot of the combat zones in the Middle East these days.

PJ jokingly tells his pal Norway that he wouldn’t call it Mad Max. It’s more like the zombie apocalypse. Shot after shot shows huge swaths of cities, once normal and functioning, that now look like Hiroshima.

Our guys, naturally, put all this at the feet of ISIS, whose members are portrayed as fanatic sociopaths who sell women into slavery and gun down small children whose only offense is joining their families in trying to flee villages that have become killing fields.

To PJ and the others, their mission is simple. Most Americans consider ISIS dangerous terrorists. Most Americans can’t or won’t physically fight them. So these men say they’re stepping in to do it for them.

Even beyond the combat, that’s not easy. Americans aren’t supposed to be doing what these volunteers are doing, which means if they are apprehended, they could be thrown in jail.

Just to get to the Kurdish YPG units with which they are fighting, they have to take a circuitous route to secret locations from which they are smuggled into the country.

You could loosely call them soldiers of fortune, except they’d probably laugh at the description because none of them are paid. All they get is food, clothing and shelter. And, of course, uniforms, weapons and ammo.

Tomada takes care not to politicize or romanticize what these Americans are doing. He takes a documentarian’s approach, trusting his two years of interviews and footage to tell the story.

In the long term, the work of these volunteers may become a modest footnote in the ancient and deeply rooted conflicts of the Middle East.

But as an intense examination of what would make someone do something like this, Hunting ISIS offers honest insights without judgment.

 
 
 
 
 
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20 Comments
 
 
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Austin
Pete or PJ. contact me please. This is important. If you have room.
Aug 6, 2020   |  Reply
 
 
Robynn Parker
PJ thank you for your service to the people of Iraq. I was so unaware of what a few good men have done to protect I’ve been in tears thinking about your sacrific and service not to our country but to people of the world. Thank you is truly not enough for what all of you have done
Jul 4, 2020   |  Reply
 
 
Haley Brzycki
Hi I want to say all of the men who volunteer to fight these pieces of shit are my absolute heroes!!! Can anyone find PJ on social media? He is an amazing human...
Dec 24, 2018   |  Reply
 
 
Duska Case
THESE GUYS ARE TRUE BAD ASS AMERICAN HEROES! I am amazed at how principle alone has kept these soldiers in the fight with no pay ! God Bless all our Service men and women, there is a special place in heaven for the volunteers out there fighting for humanity , RIP Levi, xoxo. Everyone should watch this!
Nov 16, 2018   |  Reply
 
 
Kate from Michigan
PJ, and everyone who volunteers their time and lives and sacrifice everything, they are so brave! And thanks for everything you have and continue to do, for our amazing country! Would like to support you guys some way, any way! RIP LEVI
Oct 22, 2018   |  Reply
 
 
RManna
IF anyone reading this has fought there or is trying to go there and fight, specifically current or former military, I need to say thank you so fucking much. I appreciate the hell out of you guys/girls more than words could ever convey. Thank you a million times over. I would LOVE to find out how to send cases of Red Bull and cigarettes to you guys if anyone could please tell me how!! Please and Thank You!!!
Jul 14, 2018   |  Reply
 
 
Quincy Smith
2 time Iraq vet, infantryman wanting to go , please point me in the right direction or proper channels to even get started.. this is my calling I must go please help me out and help me get in touch with the proper people and channels .. I served in Iraq from June 2007 till Dec. 2010 all but 7 months so kind of seems like home in weird way
Jul 2, 2018   |  Reply
 
FireFox
I was a medic. I will join you. Let me know if you find a way or contact.
Jul 4, 2018
 
 
 
RL
Has any one found a way to help these volunteers and there families? Weather it be equipment, financial or even just positive letters?
Jul 1, 2018   |  Reply
 
Robert L
Search: Global Response Management
There are "donate" links on their website.
Jul 4, 2018
 
 
 
Bissteen
If WE STAND for nothing~WE'LL FALL for ANYTHING. B.i.b.l.e stands for ~Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Every single solitary thing that is happening,(present day) is written in that book,and has been. If you need to understand this war better,read the Bible,if you don't believe me,the facts are in this instruction manual.
Jun 25, 2018   |  Reply
 
 
Crissy
This show needs to be on regular TV,a few channels,and a few times a week. I have an unconditional love for each and every volunteer there. My heart fears for them,and for their parents. It takes a special kind of love to give yourself for others. You are loved from Indiana,and God bless all of you.
Jun 25, 2018   |  Reply
 
Not_PJ
Word on the streets is PJ is super cool IRL
Aug 17, 2018
 
 
 
Crissy
I would REALLY like to sit down with PJ, as crazy as it sounds I want to pick his brain. I am a follower of all of the world news (no birth of babies) I am trying to write about things that matter and I think his thoughts on life here and why he does what he does would be very intriguing, not only to myself but those who live extreme lives. I think we do all share a bond or common gene (be it near death or can't sit still) This man I see on the show is amazing due to his duty of protecting, his ownership of those he is/was with the leadership role he pulls. If anyone knows him please let him now he is being hunted :) for his thoughts on life war everything. I am just trying to figure out why some brains are different. <3 the show
Jun 18, 2018   |  Reply
 
 
greg
Hello , I think those guys are gods greatest gifts to humanity , I hope you kill every last one of those MF, if I can find some sort of address for your parents house , ill send out some money so maybe you guys will know some Americans do appreciate you guys , I see the one guy lived in Cambridge mass,
thank you guys ,
Jun 4, 2018   |  Reply
 
 
jaykayDX
What sort of propagandaistic garbage is this? Everybody knows 'murica is HELPING ISISI not hunting them - ISIS are european trash from eastern europe and central asia, they have all been trained by the CIA and Mossad, Russian special forces that have blown up ISIS HQs have noted all the dead were CIA, MI5 and Mossad intel officers - the whole world knows ISIS is a western sponsored death squad intended to destabilize Syria so that the west can grab it's oil and this garbage passing as a program is not fooling anyone anymore ...
May 31, 2018   |  Reply
 
Crissy
Step up or step off ponytail princess. One day you will leave the crying romm while petting puppies..... love peace and GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! (go pet the pups) mommy will be there to nurse in a bit
Jun 18, 2018
 
 
 
Lev
Chris,
Amen to your urgent plea that we 'bring back human emotions,' if we did that so much of what ails the world all would eventually disappear. We all ARE in this together.
Lev
May 31, 2018   |  Reply
 
 
Chris
Wow. I just love watching these kind of shows. I watch them with the kids after i make sure its suitable. I am so proud of these extraordinary men. "Brave all". We have a nation full of desensitized teens (shooter games etc.) And this programming *IS the cure! You just can't watch this and have no feellings. Great work cast and volunteers who are doing what i cannot anymore. #bring_back_human_emotions .
May 30, 2018   |  Reply
 
 
Lev
David,
This is an excellently written piece and I will watch the series. I admire you for keeping your piece neutral as well, an extremely difficult accomplishment when reviewing/discussing such an explosive subject.
May 29, 2018   |  Reply
 
Chris
Well put. Cant wait for more. It was certainly written with great care for maximum effect.
May 30, 2018
 
 
 
 
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