We spent a few weeks guarding the Syrian border then given marching orders into Lebanon. It was the final push towards the end of the war. Everything is still very clear, the weight on my shoulders (33 kilos/72 lbs.), the feeling of my loaded assault rifle, the crunch under my boots. The soundtrack of war. Ours. Theirs. the quick rests and sleepless sleeps. The sound of incoming missiles, the comfort of a good cover. The smell of burnt flesh, a detached arm, flaming truck, charred tank. Helicopters come in, running with the wounded on stretchers. Gunfire. Incoming mortars. The first one long, the second short, the third… . In two separate incursions we took our positions, engaged Hizbullah, won the battle. We lost men. Fathers, brothers, sons. We stayed in local homes, tried not to do unnecessary damage, not always successfully. Pulled out. it’s been quiet on the Lebanese border since 2006. what’s left? Just me and my little PTSD. It helps me cope.
It’s disgusting and unsettling to watch supporters of Palestine, therefore the actions of Hamas, a terrorist tribe, in the streets of Calgary and even being supported by a wannabe Liberal candidate. Their hatreds came to a head when the Israeli supporters showed up, they got violent in the streets of Canada. This should be proof enough they do not belong here, their allegiance is not with Canada, they’re Canadians of convenience, cowards who live here, use us as safe haven to breed more hatred.
Immigration needs an overhaul, do it or we will have more of these dregs of the world fighting in our streets.
Kerry Caught on Camera Criticizing Israeli Operation:
I didn’t provide a link because the son of a bitch doesn’t deserve a link.
Kerry kisses Hamas ass,
Obama kisses Hamas ass,
Israel kicks Hamas ass.
My little PTSD comes from listening to these so called leaders bitch and whine about what needs to be done.
–
Some real American leaders.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS_AMERICANS_KILLED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-20-20-39-36
My Facebook comment as follows;
Michael McCallion Re-watching the HBO series “Pacific” the young men (many teenagers) listening to the artillery barrage wondering if the next shell would kill them. The young men on the other side trained for more than one generation to be fanatical killers. The one and apparently only lesson passed from generation of generation of despots. Get them young; keep them stupid; and promise novena. The ammunition being used for retaliation should be directed towards the despots of the O.P.E.C. nations starting with the Arab nations. The only lesson to teach is when war starts we come for the despots first. Self interest will then reduce the number of wars.
Well said.
We have taken vipers into our bosom and we now have homegrown anti-Semitic vipers in the Liberal and NDP parties.
Fearless Leader, you are right about Kerry not deserving a link. I have seen the despicable clip on FoxNews a few times.
Great the UN calls for ceasefire, they know who to give that message to. However that useless pack of tools in that organization has more enemies of Israel, who vote against Israel and our Western democracies at every opportunity. It’s the despots and dictators who have their arses firmly planted with one purpose and it’s not for the benefit of the civilized world. “United” Nations is misnomer of major proportions.
“Great the UN calls for ceasefire”
Hamas never ceases firing. Hamas was firing rockets into Israel before the 3 Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered.
When the UN calls for a ceasefire, it’s means they want Israel to stop short of getting the job done, again.
More example of US foreign policy backing Islamic extremists around the world.
So, what’s more dangerous to world peace?
A self-declared republic (as of April) in Ukraine or US-backed Islamic extremism?
Monitor media reports to find the way you’re expected to think.
Be very careful, Kate.
If you keep using your website to post items/articles that express sympathy for the Israeli struggle to survive you are going to upset NME666 and other virulent Jew-haters
who periodically use this site to do their drive-by Jew shootings.
BCer
They’re both, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and U.S.-backed Muslim extremism, dangerous to world peace.
Look at, for instance, the Malaysian airliner mostly with Dutch citizens on it that the Russians shot down this week. Dangerous to world peace.
Hamas seems to think the world cares that hundreds, soon to be thousands, of civilians are killed. Nobody does. It’s called keeping score and despite protests to the contrary Israel is running up the score. War has consequences, especially for Hamas who likes to start wars so they can get their clocks cleaned, ever so thoroughly, and then whine like little girls.
Israel removed the IDF from the Gaza Strip in exchange for peace as part of the Oslo Accords, if I remember correctly. Since instead of peace the Palestinian gave them rockets, the Israelis have the right to re-occupy the Gaza Strip permanently.
The UN has become an anti-semitic, anti-capitalist organization. Russia is expanding its territory in the Ukraine and China is building a serious blue-water navy complete with landing craft which can only be used to invade Taiwan. Both Russia and China can veto any UN resolution, so what use is the UN? Time for it to join the League of Nations in history’s dustbin.
Steady now. Nobody in any responsible position is saying Russia shot down the plane.
The alleged crime is that Russia provided the weapon, which Ukraine is also in possession of, curiously enough also provided by Russia.
Russians shot the plane down. Steady enough for you?
set you free wrote:
“Steady now. Nobody in any responsible position is saying Russia shot down the plane.”
Wonderful conclusion!
How are you doing it setyoufree? Smoking? Snorting? Mainlining?
BCer
SYF is a Russian agent who is unaware that his stale talking points have already been factually and logically settled in the negative in the past 2 days.
OK then enlighten me.
Who is saying the plane was shot down over Russian territory?
Ukraine also has the same weapon that allegedly shot down the plane, which was provided by Russian weapons manufacturers, yet western propaganda does not mention that fact.
Obviously, a downing of a passenger plane is a tragedy of war as the plane was flying over a war zone … an area US commercial flights avoided.
Look at this shiny object while ignoring US-supported Islamic extremism. Or are you geniuses denying that fact?
So, my parents who fled the Soviet Union spawned a Russian spy?
Brilliant conclusion, Sherlock.
“Ukraine also has the same weapon that allegedly shot down the plane”
Stating that Ukraine has such launchers is a smoke screen.
Enlighten us all as to what military air assets the Russian rebels have that would even require Ukraine to have deployed any BUK missile launchers?
The fact the Ukrainian forces are proficiently trained to use BUK missiles is a smoke screen?
In the fog of war anything is possible, even creating a false diversion, no matter how outrageous.
This weekend, I was told by a person who grew up in eastern Ukraine that the Ukrainian oligarchs are of the same national origin and that one of the current Ukrainian president’s parents is also of the same national origin. This person, whose parents fled to Moldova, has consistently told me the situation is ‘complicated.’
I’ll leave it up to you to figure out but let me give you a clue. None of the oligarchs are either of Ukrainian or Russian descent, which could help explain why the western parts of the country want nothing to do with Kiev.
“The fact the Ukrainian forces are proficiently trained to use BUK missiles is a smoke screen?”
No. That you mention it, irrelevant as it is, is a smoke screen.
Again, what military air assets do the Russian rebels have that require Ukraine to have had any BUK launchers deployed?
Do you imagine that Ukraine would deploy anti-aircraft weapons in a forward position to be captured by the Russian rebels and used against the Ukrainian air force when the Russian rebels have no air force to use anti-aircraft weapons against?
We’ve already seen video of the BUK launcher that allegedly fired the missile that shot the air liner down loaded on a flatbed and trucked into the Russian interior.
What logical explanation is there: given that Russia is not at war with Ukraine, to take Ukrainian government property into Russia if it was a launcher owned by Ukraine?
What logical explanation is there: given that Russia is supposedly Not in control of the Russian rebels, for the Russian rebels to give up this missile launcher, however they came to be in possession of it, to the Russian government?
We’ve already seen video of the BUK launcher that allegedly fired the missile that shot the air liner down loaded on a flatbed and trucked into the Russian interior.
The very one? You can tell this is the very one because it had neon lights that read: This one shot down the Malaysian Airlines plane.
Puleeze.
You are correct in that it was likely the rebels that shot down a plane that was mistaken for a Ukrainian military transport. In that case, they would not be too smart, given that the military transport shot down last week was flying at 13,000 feet, not 33,000 feet.
Best I can figure, somebody who’s a pretty good shot could have seen a chance for more glory for the Donetsk republic created in April.
There must be some reason for the rebellion, like the succession of corrupt Kievan regimes that have bankrupted the Ukraine. My guess is there was a lot of skimming going on in the natural gas pipeline to Europe and that’s the reason for construction of the southern route that circumvents the Ukraine.
As my friend keeps saying, it’s complicated, much beyond the Ukraine good Putin bad rhetoric.
Exactly right, the UN is only interested in calling for a ceasefire when Israel takes the necessary steps to defend itself, It may be time we get behind Israel and finish the job, peace is not the aim here, they want Israel off the map. The dregs of the world who take up too many seats at the so called United Nations want the same thing, Israel pushed out to sea.
“The very one?”
Yes. Russia gave the Russian rebels 3(THREE) of the BUK launchers, seen earlier in the previous week. All 3 were loaded onto flatbeds right after the shootdown. Although BUK launchers each have a complement of 4 missiles, one of the launchers only had 3 missiles.
Earlier in the day of the shoot down, Russian rebel commander Igor Girkin had bragged on FACE BOOK that they had just shot down a Ukrainian Army transport.
Then they discovered it was the Malaysian airliner, so they scrubbed the FACE BOOK page.
Later in the day the Russian government issued the statement that they had only given the Russian rebels MANPADS for air defense.
A little later on the same day, video was taken of the 3 BUK launchers, in rebel held territory under the shootdown zone, being loaded onto flatbeds and headed into Russia.
Yes, the very one.
As I said earlier, your talking points are stale.
“There must be some reason for the rebellion”
There is, and it’s quite simple. This is Russia invading and pretending it’s a rebellion.
It’s exactly the same recipe used by Russia to subvert sovereign nations and build the USSR at the beginning of the 20th century. Read some history.
No sense stopping there.
What about the czars?
How about the Rurik dynasty? Must have been the Viking influence that made Russians what they are today.
Go back even further to the resistance against the Mongol hordes.
I’ll give you some other history. Anarchists preceded the Russian Revolution.
The anarchists rampaged through the Russian empire, of which Ukraine was part of, attempting to destroy any trace of Christianity. Those actions in the late 1800s prompted a wave of immigration to Canada, among other places.
One of their descendants relayed the story to me this weekend of how her ancestors were treated badly and said it was the Russians (not anarchists) who did it (her ancestors are Ukrainian).
Any country that has more than 1000 years of history will have a history much more complicated than Canada’s just under 150-year history.
Russian history is just different enough for the people to be ‘the other’ and therefore Russians can and have been scapegoated and blamed for many things. They have managed to survive, though.
“You are correct in that it was likely the rebels that shot down a plane that was mistaken for a Ukrainian military transport”
So why the smokescreen then? Why throw up irrelevant alternate suggestions? Do you just love murderous thugs? Is your moral compass broken?
Maybe not.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/3686595391001/russian-tv-anchor-quits-while-on-air/#sp=show-clips
There was an entire team of extremely accomplished Dutch medical researchers who died on the Malaysian flight MH17. They were doing ground breaking work on a cure for the AIDS virus, as well as another deadly virus you might recognize, but memory eludes me right now.
1) All things are possible in the fog of war.
2) Same as 1
3) There are murderous neo-nazi thugs in eastern Ukraine and that’s the reason many people are leaving. There are also neo-nazi thugs in Russia, but Putin seems to have them under better control.
4) My moral compass is just fine, thanks.
5) The downing of a civilian plane in a war zone is always a tragedy. Was it a deliberate act by anti-Kiev rebels? Not quite convinced. More likely an accident of over-enthusiasm in a war zone. Not the first time in history that has happened. Friendly fire, for example.
Jumping to conclusions into a comfort zone of personal prejudices can be mentally unhealthy.
“Was it a deliberate act by anti-Kiev rebels?”
No, it was a deliberate act by invading Russian special forces posing as rebels.
“There are murderous neo-nazi thugs in eastern Ukraine”
Another smokescreen, the Jews there disagree.
Your moral compass is broken, you side with murderous thugs simply because you and they identify as Russian.
Some people come here only to personally insult other members whose opinions they don’t like. They’re more fixated on “he-said-she-said”, than the subject at hand. It does provide ongoing silly amusement, so keep it up.
Incorrect.
There is a 99.9% probability that Putin’s proxy’s shot down the Malaysian Aircraft and murdered 298 innocent passengers. There is a 100% certainty that Putin’s proxy’s have contaminated the crash scene, looted some of the victims, handled human remains in a disrespectful manner and prevented qualified experts from securing the scene and starting the investigation. It is very likely that the people who have been scouring the crash scene are removing any evidence of a Russian supplied missile before independent crash investigators start their investigation. Since proxy’s by definition act on behalf of another agent, it begs the question, who could that be? The most likely conclusion is the dissidents in Eastern Ukraine are acting on behalf of the the Russian government under the direction of Mr. Putin.
Your presumption would be correct if, in fact, they were Putin’s proxies rather than local militias.
It still has not been proven that the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic had the capability to bring down the plane over the war zone.
It’s pretty clear there’s a large segment of the Ukraine is anti-Kiev and would rather be affiliated with prosperous Russia than corrupt, broke and basket-case Ukraine.
Perhaps the statement by one of my sources, who claimed that ‘by the end of this year, there will be no such a country as Ukraine,’ may still prove to be true.
I speak to people from that area, who have many different viewpoints, whose parents, friends and relatives still live there. I trust those people more than I trust the mouthpieces for the pro-Islamic extremist US media.
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubts that you are getting your point of view from people who are still connected to the area, but it sure doesn’t sound like anything the people I know are saying.
We’ve heard that Putin wants to return Russia to its former glory of the USSR.
We’ve heard that Putin wants to return Russia to its former glory of the Czarist Empire.
Now I’m telling you Putin must be experimenting with his inner Viking. Rurik, to be specific.
Anybody else want to take a shot at demonizing Putin?
We’ve seen Putin’s Russia invade 2 sovereign nations in 6 years.
Your presumption would be correct if, in fact, they were Putin’s proxies rather than local militias.MILITIA Def:a body of citizens enrolled and drilled in military organizations other than regular military forces and called out only in emergencies. There is no regular military organization in your so called Donetsk Peoples Republic so there can be no militia, only armed dissidents most likely armed and led by Russians.
It still has not been proven that the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic had the capability to bring down the plane over the war zone. This is your opinion and is not backed by any factual information.
It’s pretty clear there’s a large segment of the Ukraine is anti-Kiev and would rather be affiliated with prosperous Russia than corrupt, broke and basket-case Ukraine. This statement may be true of the Eastern Ukraine but does not apply to the entire country.
Perhaps the statement by one of my sources, who claimed that ‘by the end of this year, there will be no such a country as Ukraine,’ may still prove to be true. Statements from anonymous sources have no value.
I speak to people from that area, who have many different viewpoints, whose parents, friends and relatives still live there. I trust those people more than I trust the mouthpieces for the pro-Islamic extremist US media. This discussion concerns the Ukraine and pro-Islamic US media have no influence on my input. Only my wife, in-laws and friends who are of Ukrainian descent influence my thinking on this subject.
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubts that you are getting your point of view from people who are still connected to the area, but it sure doesn’t sound like anything the people I know are saying. Perhaps you are talking to the wrong people.
As you correctly point out, much of this discussion is opinion.
Once foreign money starts flowing into Ukraine, then the economic truth will surface.
Ukraine would like to get its natural gas for a price lower than anywhere else in the world is paying. Once it has to pay world price, there will be a different tune.
It’s unfortunate Ukraine’s politicians are enriching themselves at the expense of the ordinary citizen, but that seems to be a reality not exclusive to that part of the world.
At the breakup of the Soviet Union, it was believed that Ukraine would do much better economically than Russia, but the opposite has happened.
Perhaps you can ask your wife, in-laws and friends how that happened, even though Ukraine had received a favourable price as a transit point for natural gas going to Europe.
No hurry. I’m signing off until tomorrow morning. And, BTW. The government should do something about this.
Since you did not speak to a number of the points I made in my original comment, can I assume that you do not dispute their veracity?
“It’s unfortunate Ukraine’s politicians are enriching themselves at the expense of the ordinary citizen”
Not ARE, WERE.(past tense) When the Ukraine President was Putin’s handpicked puppet, Plan A.
We saw how he enriched himself at the expense of the Ukrainian people.
The Russian politicians, Putin included, do the same.
So the Ukrainian people threw Putin’s puppet out, Putin went to Plan B, invade the Ukraine.
Putin calls US’s bluff.
http://news.yahoo.com/russia-challenges-accusations-ukraine-rebels-shot-down-airliner-133233867–finance.html;_ylt=AwrBEiLfPM1TfwUABWjQtDMD
And Oz:
Dream on.
SYF makes some good points, but overall, in my opinion, Oz and David Topping have it right.
All I will add is that the Rebel leader has been visually identified as a GRU colonel.