By John Crump, republished with permission from ammoland.com
A few weeks ago Louis, a 24-year-old combat veteran of the Afghan War, was sitting at home watching the news and saw a story from Iraq that reported on ISIS, an evil organization that was destroying what his brothers-in-arms had worked so hard to secure. The daily reports of atrocities began weighing heavily on Louis. Louis hoped that the U.S. would confront this evil in the same way in which they stopped the NAZI reign of terror during World War II. However, Louis felt that the U.S. was not doing enough. If his own nation would not do something, Louis decided that he needed to get into the fight . . .
“I couldn’t sit back and watch what was going on in Iraq. I just got out of the Marines in December, and when things started popping off especially in Iraq, I knew I had to go and do something. We left Iraq too early, and it didn’t adjust to peace time too well.”
As a man who is strong in his Christian faith, Louis spent time praying, doing research, and thinking about his options before coming to a conclusion. He had to help these people even if he had never met them.
“This is what I wanted to. The Iraqis didn’t deserve to suffer like that… especially with someone like me who has the mental aspect, the physical ability, and the mind set to do something. I was willing to go. I had the ability to do something, so I had the responsibility to do something.”
Louis explains that he cannot understand why there is not more outrage about what is taking place in Iraq.
In reaching his decision to travel to Iraq, Louis left behind his parents, his brother, and his girlfriend. His girlfriend did not understand his motivations. “She didn’t like it. We agreed to take a step back from the attachment thing. If things work over here, we will continue with our future,” Louis noted. His parents are more understanding.
“They knew how strongly I felt about it. They knew I was going to do what I thought was right. I have always been like that.”
In his research, Louis had found a group on the internet that was in need of people to fight against ISIS. He had a group to join, but Louis needed to figure out how to get to Iraq.
“I left the country for Germany as a tourist. Once I got to Germany I applied and was granted a visa to travel to Kurdistan. I would tell people I was a member of the press” Louis explained. “Once I got to Kurdistan, I didn’t end up joining the original group.”
Louis, ultimately, joined the Dwekh Nawsha, which is a Christian Militia that is fighting alongside the Peshmerga. The Peshmerga is the Kurdish army. Upon arriving to Iraq, Louis was taken to a safe house, where he has been living with about 6 other American veterans.
“We live together about a 40 minute drive from where the fighting is taking place. Right now our legal status is up in the air. We are going through a legal process so nothing we will be doing will be illegal. Hopefully, that will come through in the next couple of days.”
Food is supplied, but everything else is paid for by the fighters themselves.
“We don’t get paid. Other than food everything comes out of our pockets. We purchase out own firearms and ammunition,” Louis explained. “I brought my personal ammo. The militia uses its funds on ammo, among other things. The donations I get I use to help supply ammo and more weapons.”
According to Louis, the militia is getting by on whatever it can get.
“The AK’s, PKC’s, RPK’s, all come from different places, some Russian, some Chinese, and some Hungarian. Mostly older… we need more equipment. Weapons are in demand,” Louis noted.
With a country torn apart by violent fighting, weapons are hard to come by.
About 40 minutes from the front line, Louis waits. He is pulling guard duty and waiting for his legal status to come through so that he can start to fight against the murderous group of ISIS.
He is frustrated by the long wait, stating, “I want to do everything legal. My legal status should be cleared up in a week. Until then I pull guard duty and train as much as I can. We have internet at the safe house, and I have a prepaid internet SIM card, but we lose power a lot.”
Louis has been to the front line, which he describes as being a lot like World War I. “It is a long static line with no man’s land in the middle.” For now Louis is only observing mortar fire being exchanged as well as heavy machine gun fire.
“My AK wouldn’t reach them,” he explains. “Only thing that will hit them if they don’t push up on us are mortars and heavy machine guns.”
The locals are happy to have the militia there to defend them from the ISIS. “The local population loves us; they treat us well,” Louis explains. The Kurds have been a longtime ally of the U.S. and are a semi-autonomous region in Iraq. The Kurds have a functioning democracy and mostly live in peace. Even during the height of the Iraq war, the region was peaceful, and an American was able to walk down the street without fear.
“People get up and go to work. They go shopping and go about their lives. Life goes on even though they are 40 minutes away from the fight,” Louis notes.
The Kurds are fighting ISIS to a stalemate even though the Kurds are in dire need of equipment. The U.S has not and will not give the Kurds weapons to use in the fight against ISIS. While ISIS is fighting with captured U.S. equipment, the Kurds are fighting with old Soviet- era weapons.
Louis plans to be in Kurdistan as long as it takes.
“If things are going really well, I go home in a year. If things are still going the way they are going now, I will be here until it is over. I feel like it is my duty,” he finishes. Louis is dedicated to the fight and plans to be in Iraq for as long as it takes.
The Dwekh Nawsha can be contacted at [email protected] and can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Dwekh.Nawsha.
The enemy flag can be seen flying on the front lines, but Louis and the Dwekh Nawsha do not plan to back down.
Louis finished the interview with this message, “These people are counting on us to help them. I cannot abandon them. No one deserves what ISIS is putting these people through. It is just evil. Just pure evil. I will do whatever it takes to defeat this evil. It shocks me there is not more outrage at home. I only hope that my country starts to help the people here whether it be direct action or by supplying the people fighting ISIS.”
Louis and the other fighters are depending on donations. Louis has started writing the names of the people who have donated to him on his ammunitions that will be used to fight ISIS. He tells me that the militia badly needs medical supplies. There is a test package being shipped to make sure packages will be able to reach the militia.
John Crump is a NRA certified pistol instructor and CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC. And a Ceritfied NRA instructor http://www.gunschool.info
THAT takes a lot of courage and resolve, having been there before and knowing what its like.
I don’t follow things closey, but it does seem as if the Kurds have been a lot less dysfunctional than what we call the “Shi’ite” and “Sunni” parts of Iraq. (Our news coverage during and after the invasion pretty much oversimplified things as “Sunni,” “Shi’ite” and “Kurdish” even though the Kurds are mostly Sunni as well. The distinction being “Sunni” and “Shi’ite” areas are populated by Arabs, a Semitic people, whereas Kurds are actually Indo-European. Kurds may be Muslim, mostly, but they are not Arabs.) I think that however this shakes out, the Kurds are entitled to run their own affairs afterwards. They’re already most of the way there, being an “autonomous” region of Iraq before Isis came in and upended that applecart.
Helping them out seems like much less of a waste of time than “peacekeeping” in other parts of the Middle East, where the internecine fighting just begins again as soon as we leave, and doesn’t stop until someone ruthless enough to terrorize “his own people” into submission comes along. I put that in quotes because that ruthless bastard doesn’t think of the people he’s terrorizing as “his own people” because they are part of some other tribe.
As an aside, even though the term “Nazi” is a shortening of “Nationalsozialismus” it looks really odd in all caps.
My Wife worked with a Kurdish immigrant janitor at the library. Kurds are okay. Back them.
Nation-states work better than religious states. Make of that whatever you want.
Except when the nation states are based on marxism, communism or socialism.
Over one hundred million sacrificed on the altar of no god In the last hundred years.
I’m not sure you get what “nation-state” means, nor “religious state”. A nation state is France, the state of french people. To have it you need to repress occitan and breton people. A religious state is Iran, the state of Shia followers. To have it you need to repress zoroastrians, sunni and jews.
Here, I googled it for you
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_state
Our government continues to screw the Kurds so that we can keep that bastard Islamo Turkey POS country “on our side”. What a farce.
There were Turks lining up to jump into Dien Bien Phu to fight communists sight unseen. I don’t like what has been going on there lately but I certainly wouldn’t write them off. They are not Saudis.
Yea, the Turks are great, except for the whole aiding and abetting ISIS thing. It does kinda look bad when your “ally” allows the fighters of the group that wants to behead and or burn everyone in your country alive to pass through your borders freely.
That is some brass balls. I seriously considered security contract work in the ME prior to the Obama administration.
I’ll be sending support. I’d seriously consider going over and fighting if I didn’t have a family. This seems like the kind of mission trip matched to my experiences.
Godspeed, gentlemen.
I.E. a Crusader
Or even
(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
…rōnin paladin
Don’t be stupid, he’s not a tank!
(it’s a joke guys)
The reason the crusades happened was Islamic expansionism had swept through what had been primarily a Christian and Zorastorian area of the mid-east and was poised for the final push into what was the remnants of the Christian culture of Western europe.
Up to that point Islam had been an unstoppable juggernaut that had swept through Asia, India, Egypt, and Spain converting, subjugating or killing anyone that stood in their way.
The crusaders were successful in stopping the final extinction of our Christian based culture even though they were unable to return the mid-east to it’s Christian, Jewish and Zorastorian roots.
Now the true spirit of Islam as represented by ISIS/Al-quaeda is continuing it’s the converting, subjugating or murdering of all those that stand in their way whether Christian, Jewish, Anamist or the “wrong”version of Islam In the mid-east and Africa.
In a few more decades, it looks like they will finally complete their subjugation of Western Europe to Islam with all of the mass murder that will result.
Well said ThomasR…may I add I hope I’m not around to see that world. Even so come Lord Jesus…
^ This.
The crusades were launched after the Muslim Turks took the city of Jerusalem from the Muslim Egyptians and closed the city to Christian pilgrims. It had nothing to do with stopping Islam from expanding, especially since the Muslims conquered the area 400 years earlier.
Sorry Chaotic Good. That is speaking from a very narrow small event in a canvas that covers fourteen hundred years of history. Tell Martel “the hammer” at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD that he wasn’t facing the extinction of the Christian culture from an expansionistic Muslim Empire.
Tell that to the Spanish Christian Monarchy after they pushed out the remnants of the Muslims occupying forces in the 1000A.D. period that had held sway since the early 700’s and the promise by the Muslims that they would return to place the land once again under Muslim control.
Tell that to the Knights of Malta in the Siege of Malta in 1565 that would decide if the Mediterranean would be controlled by the Ottoman (Muslim) Empire or by the Spanish Christian monarchy. There has been much analysis that if the Ottoman Empire had won this battle, it would have led to the invasion and the continued expansion of the Ottomans back into Spain and then the rest of western Europe.
And yes. The Christian teachings were used by tyrants in a way that Christ would obviously not support to control people through hate, fear, and oppression. But that is not the case today, unlike Islam.
Today, following the example set by Muhammad, by use of terror, oppression, and mass murder, also by an actual sword, Islam is once again on the rise, against a west that has lost sight of history, fact and example to deny what is right before their very eyes.
That the boogey man of our darkest nightmares, ISIS, is being used by those in power to once again rally us to fight against a “common enemy” by telling us we need to give up essential liberty for the illusion of safety and security. Hitler and Goebbels would be proud.
In the end, I don’t worry much about a terrorist attack by a bunch of throw back savages that worship at the foot of blood and violence at the tip of a sword. I am much more concerned by the NDAA and the fact that an American citizen can be held indefinitely without the right to speak to a lawyer, to be charged with a crime, to be faced with his accusers for the duration of “hostilities” that Bush the Younger said could last a hundred years.
But I don’t hate ISIS, or Obama, or the leftists/statists that worship at the foot of government and use the murder of the unborn as their sacrament. I look at them as a symptom of a disease, a “Harbinger” that was for-told would happen thousands of year ago if we as a people did one little thing. That is to turn our backs on the Christ and the laws of G-d.
Until we turn, voluntarily, I underline voluntarily, back to following the laws of G-d and the Christ, this will continue to unfold as prophesized.
And it ain’t gonna be pretty.
I would have to say that Chaotic Good’s version is far closer to what most medievalists and medieval historian would state was the truth. Sorry, ThomasR, but I have to disagree with your interpretation.
CarlB,
Not true… historians are always debating the real significance of the battle, and let’s be ‘frank’, had Martellius not won those academics would never have been born nor had the right to debate the different historical points of view. Caliphates don’t have differing points of view.
What Desert Ranger Tycho said
No offense, but I am a medievalist, and I have done no small amount of research in this area, and while it is true that academics argue all the time–that is what makes for good understanding–the argument that ThomasR presents is not sound. He uses 16th century wars of the Ottoman Turks to defend his thesis about 11th and 12 century Crusades, for instance. All I am saying is that the vast number of academics would make arguments that run counter to his points.
Also, when people start to make claims that if X had happened in 732 AD, then Y never would have happened in 1961, they have entered into speculative fiction, not history.
Is that why Crusades were waged, among other things, against pagan (and in some cases even newly Christianized) Eastern European tribes, too?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Crusades
I’m surprised you didn’t bring up that by the time of the last “official” Crusade (4th I believe), the expeditionary force didn’t even make it past Constantinople. It instead settled on attacking, raping and pillaging the heart of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which Roman backed Crusaders held in as much disdain as Muslims. The Crusades original motive to make Jerusalem safe for Christianity fell by the wayside. Earth territory, power, opportunity for trade and riches became the predominant motive to the Roman Catholic Church and various kings and lords that allied themselves with these undertakings, in contrast to Jesus’ teachings.
However, it is true that Muslims invaded parts of Europe years before the first Crusade took place. Whether or not the Crusades were a direct result of that is debatable, but to to say Muslims were just sitting in the Middle East minding their own business is not at all true.
I don’t support the US government’s involvement with any of these wars but I do, wholeheartedly, support these private efforts. My hat is off to you, sir. I will pray for your safe return.
Agree. May G-d be with him.
This is still a free country (thanks to brave men like Louis) and if you intend to say God, say it like you mean it! (true regardless of whatever god you are referring to). Don’t bleep it out to make sure someone doesn’t get their panties in a bunch.
I do the same as ThomasR. I avoid spelling out the full word, G-d, out of respect for my creator. It’s a Judeo tradition that some of us follow. It’s not uncommon for some of us who practice certain religious beliefs.
http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081110101346AAufN1j
Why do people type like this (G-d)? ?
Yeah, a senseless tradition maybe.
“God” is not the proper name for your creator. If you were to “bleep out” יהוה then that might make some sense but you are ‘bleeping’ a word that is simply a representation of a concept in an entirely different language than the one contained in the Old Testament. And guess what? “G_d” is exactly the same thing- a (non-name) representation of a concept as “God” except you get to think you’re special by putting a line there.
“Look at my piety everyone!!!”
@Hannibal: I wrote “word” and not “name”. 😉
It’s a personal religious choice that has persisted from my childhood. It is a point of reverence from me to my creator. It’s not unlike my prayers before every serving of food. So, you really think it is some sort of show… for you?!?! Believe it or not, it really doesn’t matter what you think of the religious practices. They aren’t harming you nor are they interfering with your rights. If you don’t like it, I don’t know what to tell you. Perhaps, get over yourself already?
So S. Crock. It is a good thing to live in a country where a person can’t tell another how they should worship, or not, to their personal diety. Unlike some places we could mention.
What I get from your post Hannibal is that you are full of intolerance, bigotry and even hate towards those that doesn’t believe as you.
If I didn’t know better, you fit the classic example of what a Christian is supposed to be. And some still are.
God, Elohim, Jehovah, The Lord of Hosts, Allah, Tengri, Yod-He-Waw-He…none of them are the “true name” of God. The only real, remotely cohesive identity that is is the Tetragrammaton which is unspeakable and unfathomable except in the impossible concept of perfection that can be only imperfectly conceived.
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/tetragrammaton-ineffable-name-god-25629480.jpg
:exhales bonghit:
It’s not the moon-god allah. Yes YHWH or JESUS works for me. I have no problem with those who don’t spell out GOD. And again +1 ThomasR…
@GuyFromV: 🙂
For me, it’s a personal reminder that G-d, the I am that I am, can not really be fully understood in our present form. It keeps the question open so that I still know I have more to learn.
Water Walker, just FYI, when Christians in Arab countries pray to God, they say “Allah” when you would say “Lord” in your prayer. Allah simply means God in Arabic, nothing more, nothing less.
Does he have a wheelbarrow to haul around those huge balls of his?
Yeah. Tactically speaking, he won’t be able to sneak around much with those things clanging.
The sparks would give his position away at night.
Does brass spark?
“Does brass spark?”
Figuratively, hell yeah!
Literally, not so much…
You’re not the only one outraged brave sir. I wish I could go at a broken down over 60. Saying a prayer for you and yours.
I am a non-interventionist when it comes to government military action but I admire this fellow in this matter. I think that this is how it should be done – totally voluntary and with mechanisms such as crowd funding. I’ll send money if I determine that I can do so without incurring the wrath of the feds.
+1
No ARs, I see. Only 7.62×39 AKs. The stories must be true.
The stories are true.
In a war, you use the weapon that is compatible with whatever ammo is supplied by the logistical machine of the side you’re fighting on. Otherwise, you’ll be out of ammo to fight with in a few days.
Oh, there is plenty of outrage in the United States … we just don’t hear about it on the mainstream media.
I imagine lots of us would love to send firearms and ammunition to help Mr. Louis and the Kurds. My main concern is the same whether we are sending firearms and ammunition, food, medical supplies, or even money — whether we are sending those items to Iraq or to some nation in central Africa: how do we know that those items will actually arrive in the hands of Mr. Lewis and the Kurds and be used to suppress evil?
God bless and give ’em hell
ISIS says they are going into Lebanon next. World Affair’s Michael J Totten reports “Every family in Lebanon is armed to the gills thanks to the state being too weak and divided to provide basic security”.
As Mr. Totten is a lib, I doubt his definition of “armed to the gills” is anything like ours. Armed to the gills to me? I would say a DShK mounted in the back of a Toyota pickup and 100k rounds would qualify. Anything less is just home defense.
Godspeed and give the bastards hell.
The quickest way to defeat ISIS (Al-Qaeda by another name), is for our Government to stop funding, supplying, arming them.
“The war isn’t meant to be won, it’s meant to be continuous.”
WAKE UP!
I am of the (probably) minority view that the CIA is still behind IS. They seem to do everything that they can to make enemies. That can only help the American war effort. Nice glossy videos, pissing off everyone around them, etc… I think the CIA never left IS.
No, ISIS and Al-queda are enemies. ISIS is millenarian and believe in a caliphate. As such they can easily be destroyed if we wanted to (it is all about holding territory for them) al-queda is not territorial and so harder to squash
Again, ISIS condemns suicide bombings, supports socialized healthcare, and has a belief against any permanent peace treaties. They think they will have an apocalyptic battle in Dabiq. Al-queda has actual political demands and could (though shouldn’t) be negotiated with. Not ISIS. ISIS i all about territorial expansion, and so is not a threat to the US directly (they are not training terrorists and sending them here), etc
The gross ignorance in the display of knowledge of ISIS is laughable.
Polls say 59% of Americans support sending troops to fight ISIS, the US government should offer free transportation for those so willing to send troops. (But less than 1% have served in the US armed forces since Sept 11th 2001) Here’s a chance for the other 58% to do their part.
This man wants to do something and is on the path to do it, I can respect him for that, most say they want ______ but few are willing to step up and do it and pay what ever the price is.
Here’s a idea for a business, setup hunting vacations, hunt feral ISIS members, like big game hunting but they shoot back and you can’t bring back your kills stuffed or mounted. Have them sign a waiver if they are shot the company is not liable, much like if you take your car racing, you sign a waiver at the track.
The post notes that the Obama regime refuses to arm the Kurds, even though the Peshmerga is doing most of the work on the ground against ISIS. The reason is that our “ally,” Turkey, hates the Kurds and considers them to be terrorists. So to placate the Turks –who are doing nothing except providing access to the region for foreign ISIS fighters — we are crippling the Kurds who are our real, natural allies in the region.
With allies like Turkey, we need no enemies.
With allies like Turkey, we need no enemies. I really do not trust the Turks in this matter.
I wonder if it bothers you that Kurds’ biggest political party is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is unabashedly Marxist. So yeah, most of those Peshmerga units in Iraq? They’re “commies”.
The respect level for this guy is just so high. He has more guts than the entire leadership of this country.
What a coincidence. I just finished reading “A Martyr Speaks,” the diary of the late John Alan Coey, who volunteered in the Rhodesian Light Infantry in the mid 1970’s after returning from service in Vietnam. There will be no official recognition of Louis if he survives, no trusted squad-mates from Afghanistan there to back him up, no medal awarding ceremony, no real support from his own country, nothing. He, like Coey, chose to put his life of comfort on hold in the interest of aiding a nation that his own hardly pays attention to, and he’s doing it all with nowhere near the logistical consistency he took advantage of during his time in the Marines. That takes guts and is one of the purest expressions of selflessness I’ve seen in a long while. It also looks like he’s wearing a Pattern ’83 South African chest rig in the top photo; excellent piece of kit.
The feds are certainly going to “cecognize” the hell out of him. “Justie” IRS, INS, etc And anyone who steps up to support him/his.
Did they freeze the online petition to the atf on M855? It says The last signature was on the 27th!
My verification email got held up for a day or two and when I clicked on it, the website said that the petition no longer was accessible or something.
I wish him and others doing the same well. It’s a just war of defense for sure. If I didn’t have two little ones I’d give it serious thought. It’s a shame our government doesn’t encourage civilians in doing things like this and maybe grease the skids a little. A few thousands Americans might help a lot.
There is plenty of suffering right here in America where a man of talent and desire can be of great impact. No need to go traipsing off to someone else’s centuries long civil war, aka their perpetually dysfunctional, murder-adoring, death culture, to play savior. Sounds like psycopathy masquerading as charity, to me.
Want a contribution? Sorry, I gave at the office, for more than a decade. If anyone were ever to get serious about the Middle East, as in go in and run it for generations with brute force, self-financing and profitable like a colony, with a solid plan to strip it of its native cultures and replace it all with something bland and meek like Canada, then I’ll listen. Until then, I’m tired of paying the electricity bill for the meatgrinder.
It’s his choice. And I support it. May we all be psychopaths…they are killing anyone who isn’t isis.
do you think it’s legal for a US citizen to contribute to this Christian group he is fighting with? I mean PayPal gets its panties in a twist when you want to pay for any gun related item how will they feel if you contribute to a militia group in the Middle East?
Paypal would like match you donation if was going to ISIS
I’d be very careful if the funding goes to any Kurd-associated group. That usually means that PKK is involved somehow (or at least they will assume that it is), and those guys are still on the official list of terrorist organizations. So you may find violating terrorist funding laws, which has some seriously hefty penalties attached to it.
“Louis hoped that the U.S. would confront this evil in the same way in which they stopped the NAZI reign of terror during World War II.”
By finally showing up in the last 15 minutes?
Kidding.
Now you know that the US showed up a full seventeen minutes before the end. For Pete’s sake!
More seriously, it was infuriating to watch some Soviet propaganda videos regarding WWII, that implied that all we did in 1942 and 1943 was blow up some mockup battleships. Granted we weren’t throwing millions of people into that meatgrinder known as the Eastern Front like they were, but that was ridiculous.
I wonder where all those millions of rounds of ammo and thousands of RPG7s that the Czech Republic sent to Kurds last summer ended, considering that the man needs to buy the ammo from his own pocket.
THIS is a true hero. I want to do this so much but i just can’t bring myself to leave my family. I guess im just weak and self centered.
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