One thing that consistently disgusts me is the blatant racist and intolerant attitudes I constantly see and hear in the media. While some commentators take a moderate view, there are many who pander to xenophobic attitudes and preach hate to middle-aged white people who like to hear that kind of crap. We’re told that Islam is the problem, so it has to be destroyed. We’re told by people like Marco Rubio that we are in a war of civilizations, an existential battle between Islam and the West. In a dimwitted frenzy, these types of people tell us that the Middle East should be nuked off the face of the earth, as if this will solve our problems, rather than, you know, unite the entire world against us.
Nearly every day I feel like I’m listening to a bunch of chicken-hawk cowards who never served in Iraq claim we need to kill every Muslim man, woman, and child. Where are the moderate Muslims, they ask. Why doesn’t the Muslim world fight back against extremism?
Listen up, ass clowns, while I ‘splain something to you.
The good, moderate Muslims are in Iraq and Syria and they are fighting ISIS. Many of them are friends of mine. I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Muslim soldiers as we fought against Islamic extremism in Iraq when I was a Green Beret. These men were members of the Tal Afar SWAT team. Allow me to introduce you to a few of them.
Here is a picture of me and the Tal Afar SWAT team commander, Salim. He served in the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, and the 2003 war with the “previous regime,” before coming to work with us to help Iraq and America fight the War on Terror. He was one of the best commanders I’ve worked with and I deeply respect him. He is also a God-fearing Muslim and father of four.Here is my other good buddy, Shahab, who I remain in touch with to this day. As you can see, he was inspired quite a bit by U.S. Special Forces and went the tacti-cool route. Amazingly, he even built the rifle seen in this photo in his garage. Even more amazing is that the thing actually fired. By trade, Shahab is an artist who paints murals on the walls of people’s homes. He was a very smart dude who was also compiling an ISWAT version of the Ranger handbook all on his own.This is a picture of me and another ISWAT member named Saddiq, who was about 23 years old. He was always upbeat, smiling, and joking, no matter what the situation—even in freezing Iraqi winters when we were out on patrol. Saddiq helped me out a lot with my Iraqi-dialect Arabic as well.
ISIS took over their hometown of Tal Afar, largely because the Iraqi government failed to provide proper logistical support. Without food, water, or bullets, you are in for a short war no matter how determined you are. Today, many ISWAT members I worked with continue to fight ISIS in other parts of Iraq.
There are some deep problems within the Islamic world, I don’t dispute this for a moment, but pardon me if I get slightly upset when I hear ignorant morons saying that all Muslims are evil and have some global ambitions to destroy the Western world. It’s nonsense, and does nothing but alienate the moderates within the Islamic community. These guys are friends of mine, they served with me, and they did a hell of a lot more to fight against Islamic terrorism than Donald Trump ever has.
Ironically, the same racist dipshits that hate on Muslims every day also strongly support the Kurdish Peshmerga as the only force in the Middle East worth a damn. Guess what? They’re Muslims too! Take a look at these Muslim soldiers I met up with as they advanced into ISIS territory outside Kirkuk.
Panic, everyone! The Peshmerga are Muslims and ignorant Americans had no idea!
One thing that consistently disgusts me is the blatant racist and intolerant attitudes I constantly see and hear in the media. While some commentators take a moderate view, there are many who pander to xenophobic attitudes and preach hate to middle-aged white people who like to hear that kind of crap. We’re told that Islam is the problem, so it has to be destroyed. We’re told by people like Marco Rubio that we are in a war of civilizations, an existential battle between Islam and the West. In a dimwitted frenzy, these types of people tell us that the Middle East should be nuked off the face of the earth, as if this will solve our problems, rather than, you know, unite the entire world against us.
Nearly every day I feel like I’m listening to a bunch of chicken-hawk cowards who never served in Iraq claim we need to kill every Muslim man, woman, and child. Where are the moderate Muslims, they ask. Why doesn’t the Muslim world fight back against extremism?
Listen up, ass clowns, while I ‘splain something to you.
The good, moderate Muslims are in Iraq and Syria and they are fighting ISIS. Many of them are friends of mine. I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Muslim soldiers as we fought against Islamic extremism in Iraq when I was a Green Beret. These men were members of the Tal Afar SWAT team. Allow me to introduce you to a few of them.
Here is a picture of me and the Tal Afar SWAT team commander, Salim. He served in the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, and the 2003 war with the “previous regime,” before coming to work with us to help Iraq and America fight the War on Terror. He was one of the best commanders I’ve worked with and I deeply respect him. He is also a God-fearing Muslim and father of four.Here is my other good buddy, Shahab, who I remain in touch with to this day. As you can see, he was inspired quite a bit by U.S. Special Forces and went the tacti-cool route. Amazingly, he even built the rifle seen in this photo in his garage. Even more amazing is that the thing actually fired. By trade, Shahab is an artist who paints murals on the walls of people’s homes. He was a very smart dude who was also compiling an ISWAT version of the Ranger handbook all on his own.This is a picture of me and another ISWAT member named Saddiq, who was about 23 years old. He was always upbeat, smiling, and joking, no matter what the situation—even in freezing Iraqi winters when we were out on patrol. Saddiq helped me out a lot with my Iraqi-dialect Arabic as well.
ISIS took over their hometown of Tal Afar, largely because the Iraqi government failed to provide proper logistical support. Without food, water, or bullets, you are in for a short war no matter how determined you are. Today, many ISWAT members I worked with continue to fight ISIS in other parts of Iraq.
There are some deep problems within the Islamic world, I don’t dispute this for a moment, but pardon me if I get slightly upset when I hear ignorant morons saying that all Muslims are evil and have some global ambitions to destroy the Western world. It’s nonsense, and does nothing but alienate the moderates within the Islamic community. These guys are friends of mine, they served with me, and they did a hell of a lot more to fight against Islamic terrorism than Donald Trump ever has.
Ironically, the same racist dipshits that hate on Muslims every day also strongly support the Kurdish Peshmerga as the only force in the Middle East worth a damn. Guess what? They’re Muslims too! Take a look at these Muslim soldiers I met up with as they advanced into ISIS territory outside Kirkuk.
Panic, everyone! The Peshmerga are Muslims and ignorant Americans had no idea!
Oh noes! Like, sharia law, uh, caliphate is…wait, what?! Did you know that the Kurdish YPG in northern Syria actually has a lot of Arab Muslims in it? That’s right, Arab Muslims inside a secular socialist militia. I know I just made some heads explode with that one. Here are a few YPG members I came across in Syria last year:
Are these the Muslims that we are supposed to be living in fear of? Where are the moderate Muslims? Open your damn eyes and they are pretty hard to miss.
Unlike some of the fear-mongering racists in America who try to scare us with mythology about the Islamic world, these people are actually standing up to Islamic extremism. I’m finally fed up with these personalities. Pam Geller? Former Navy SEAL Ben Smith? Pull your head out of your ass huckster. Brigitte Gabriel? In that video clip you say that moderate Muslims are irrelevant. They aren’t. They are at the forefront of fighting radical Islam while you peddle your bullshit from safety. Brigitte is irrelevant and hasn’t done a damn thing to fight radical Islam.
The Muslim-haters speak with a confident fervor, with passionate conviction they never question. Many of them know that they are full of it, deep down, but still give some of the ignorant Americans what they want to hear by speaking in glittering generalities suitable only for a propaganda poster. If they would stop mistaking their mouth for a bull’s rear end for a few minutes, maybe they would fly over to Kurdistan and try their hand at actually doing something rather than acting like anti Muslim attention mongers.
Every one one of these anti-Islam cowards can kiss my American behind.
(Featured image: The author having BBQ and brewskies with moderate Muslims. Tough shit if that doesn’t jive with your assumptions.)
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