Current US Military

[Smitty-48]

Brutal. I don’t understand the desire to ‘just deploy’, but the story is a tragic one indeed.

One of a great many, over 20 years of the MIC at play.

that is the professional aspect

you don't sign up to serve any particular cause

you just sign up to join the regiment

it's a brotherhood, I mean, it's my second family

you think I don't have any friends

but I have many brothers from the regiment who go to war for me

for no other reason than I am Smitty, their brother to the left & right of them

it's a wonderful experience, it's the ultimate male bonding

so Ainsworth wasn't deploying for George W. Bush

he was deploying for me

so I can't help having feels about that

[Smitty-48]

this is the Toronto Necropolis

Ainsworth is buried straight in from the front gate, about a hundred meters back in

this is where I'm from, I played in this cemetery as a boy

[Smitty-48]

this is the regimental Cenotaph, at Queen's Park in Toronto

this is all that Corporal Ainsworth Dyer fought & died for, tho he died far away in Afghanistan

he wasn't even fighting under Canadian command

he was serving under United States Central Command as he died

[Smitty-48]

I am from the hood in the downtown eastside, just blocks from Moss Park Armoury

that's where the 48th Highlanders are from, that's where I am from, that's my home unit

so that's how I am Smitty-48 : origin story

[Hastur]

This did not age well.

[Smitty-48]

This did not age well.

not available in my country, it says

[DrYouth]

Sorry for your loss.

Friends or not...

I pay my respects.

[Smitty-48]

Sorry for your loss.

Friends or not...

I pay my respects.

I appreciate the sentiment

but again, this is the life of the professional soldier

I don't see it as a defeat

these men lived up to the valour of their predecessors

now, Frank Mellish's kids lament his loss every day, they wish he handn't charged into the storm

it's not my loss, it is their loss

they lost a father

but the regiment gained a legend, and I gained a hero to look up to

[DrYouth]

Just read this...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... iban-rule/

The Taliban is keeping girls off their smartphones... and under their burqas.

Not exactly ISIS from the sound of it.

They never were... but you always wonder what they will turn into.

[Smitty-48]

Not exactly ISIS from the sound of it.

ISIS is there too

the Taliban are now in a war with ISIS for control of Afghanistan

AQ was never allied to the Taliban

AQ was Arab foreign fighters from Saudi Arabia, nothing to do with the Pashtun Taliban

once NATO invaded Afghanistan, the Pashtun Taliban & Arab AQ were forced together

allies of convenience all of a sudden

now that NATO is pulling out, the predecessor to AQ, which ISIS, is going to war against the Taliban

this the same thing that happened in the wake of America pulling out of Vietnam

at which point, China flipped to backing the Khmer Rouge

the Vietnamese switched back the Soviets, and then invaded Cambodia

the Khmer Rouge used the same tactics the VC had used against America to defeat the Vietnamese

then China invaded Vietnam in 1979 as part of this theatre war

then when Stalinist dictator Le Duan died in 1986, Vietnam flipped back to America against China