A reaction from this USMC Vet to Somalia's refugees when they say " Lets not forget the thousands of dead Somalis who died at the hands of the U.S. military during the battle of "Blackhawk Down".
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To this day I can remember the smell of Mogadishu, and the tracers streaming into our camps.
The donkey and goat towed carts filled with wood, and dirty water in gas cans, being dragged into the heart of the city to supply their destitute population. The donkeys and goats had bridles woven from copper wires and ropes made from electrical wire scavanged from the ruins. Starving people that lived in the concrete skeletal buildings hollowed and crumbling from civil war. UXO on every block. Mortar fins stuck up from the sandy soil like weeds.
These people repurposed their once modern city's wasteland in every imagiable way. We were there to guard the food convoys, and stop the warlords from destroying the organizations sending in relief. Food there was a weapon. You only ate if you were a loyalist to a faction, and your faction had food hoards. And there was plenty of rice and beans.... but it was stored in warlord controled warehouses right next to their ammunition, fuel, and arms.
We shure did kill alot of "hungry" people in the 31days I was there. I pesonaly experienced 7 firefights, one with air support that saved me and six others pinned behind a wall by a 12.5 HMG. Our Doc was shot, we had wounded, and pest related casualties. 3/9 Kilo Co, weapons platoon, Anti-tank assault men. (Wich meant I got to hump 35lbs more than normal grunts. We carried full rifle load outs because the place was too "hot" to rationalize the 9mm A-Gunners usually sported. They had deadlined our SMAWS and issued us AT4s.)
The most poignant moment for me was on a raid to Bakarra market. We put out perimiter security, and I took a corner short wall perch to give my AT4 gunners good fields of fire down a wide street.
We were warry of hit and run shooters, and "technical" trucks with mounted heavy weapons.
You expect civillians to get off the street. To get out of harms way. These people did not. They left their children playing in the gutters, and stood arround like we were a TV show. The adults ate enough to not be skin and bones. But the children were swolen bellied walking ribcages.
There was a child 4-5 years old playing in a gutter 10ft away. I heard him making shooting noises at me.... This pathetic, starving, rags on skeleton child is dragging a home made toy truck with a dirty syringe taped on top. The toy was a wire frame pickup truck woven in and thru a reshaped shower shoe. Hollow D cell batteries as tires...
And this child is playing at shooting me, and my marines, even as we are trying to get the people to go inside, and get these fuckin kids out from arround our position.
And it struck me hard.... I played like this child with army men. My army men were hero's. They fought against Hitler, Chinese hoards, and the Cong /NVA to make a better world for children to thrive in.
This child of savagery was being steeped in the lore of his people and culture. He was playing at killing us because we were interfering with his peoples reality.
The depravity of that world. The refusal to protect themselves, and get out of harms way. The cheap value of life. The worthlessness of children in that society is at an opposite to ours.
So when I hear a Somali imigrant try to accuse us of being brutal in our attempt to disrupt that "cullture"....
I get sick. I seeth to dash them with a cup filled from a Somali street puddle. And point to those worthless starving children held hostage by their cultures indifference.
To any refugee, but especially Somali imigrants to the US: Be gratefull that you escaped that hell. The hell somany of us fought on your behalf and to your benefit.
Cpl. G. Russell : USMC, 3/9 kilo Co, Weapons platoon.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-claims-us-forces-killed-thousands-of-somalis-during-black-hawk-down-resurfaced-tweet-shows.amp
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/pelosi-owns-the-comments-of-rashida-tlaib-and-ilhan-omar
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To this day I can remember the smell of Mogadishu, and the tracers streaming into our camps.
The donkey and goat towed carts filled with wood, and dirty water in gas cans, being dragged into the heart of the city to supply their destitute population. The donkeys and goats had bridles woven from copper wires and ropes made from electrical wire scavanged from the ruins. Starving people that lived in the concrete skeletal buildings hollowed and crumbling from civil war. UXO on every block. Mortar fins stuck up from the sandy soil like weeds.
These people repurposed their once modern city's wasteland in every imagiable way. We were there to guard the food convoys, and stop the warlords from destroying the organizations sending in relief. Food there was a weapon. You only ate if you were a loyalist to a faction, and your faction had food hoards. And there was plenty of rice and beans.... but it was stored in warlord controled warehouses right next to their ammunition, fuel, and arms.
We shure did kill alot of "hungry" people in the 31days I was there. I pesonaly experienced 7 firefights, one with air support that saved me and six others pinned behind a wall by a 12.5 HMG. Our Doc was shot, we had wounded, and pest related casualties. 3/9 Kilo Co, weapons platoon, Anti-tank assault men. (Wich meant I got to hump 35lbs more than normal grunts. We carried full rifle load outs because the place was too "hot" to rationalize the 9mm A-Gunners usually sported. They had deadlined our SMAWS and issued us AT4s.)
The most poignant moment for me was on a raid to Bakarra market. We put out perimiter security, and I took a corner short wall perch to give my AT4 gunners good fields of fire down a wide street.
We were warry of hit and run shooters, and "technical" trucks with mounted heavy weapons.
You expect civillians to get off the street. To get out of harms way. These people did not. They left their children playing in the gutters, and stood arround like we were a TV show. The adults ate enough to not be skin and bones. But the children were swolen bellied walking ribcages.
There was a child 4-5 years old playing in a gutter 10ft away. I heard him making shooting noises at me.... This pathetic, starving, rags on skeleton child is dragging a home made toy truck with a dirty syringe taped on top. The toy was a wire frame pickup truck woven in and thru a reshaped shower shoe. Hollow D cell batteries as tires...
And this child is playing at shooting me, and my marines, even as we are trying to get the people to go inside, and get these fuckin kids out from arround our position.
And it struck me hard.... I played like this child with army men. My army men were hero's. They fought against Hitler, Chinese hoards, and the Cong /NVA to make a better world for children to thrive in.
This child of savagery was being steeped in the lore of his people and culture. He was playing at killing us because we were interfering with his peoples reality.
The depravity of that world. The refusal to protect themselves, and get out of harms way. The cheap value of life. The worthlessness of children in that society is at an opposite to ours.
So when I hear a Somali imigrant try to accuse us of being brutal in our attempt to disrupt that "cullture"....
I get sick. I seeth to dash them with a cup filled from a Somali street puddle. And point to those worthless starving children held hostage by their cultures indifference.
To any refugee, but especially Somali imigrants to the US: Be gratefull that you escaped that hell. The hell somany of us fought on your behalf and to your benefit.
Cpl. G. Russell : USMC, 3/9 kilo Co, Weapons platoon.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-claims-us-forces-killed-thousands-of-somalis-during-black-hawk-down-resurfaced-tweet-shows.amp
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/pelosi-owns-the-comments-of-rashida-tlaib-and-ilhan-omar
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