Kinda breaks my heart a little.
The guy that taught me Arabic was a Syrian friend named Amir. I won't mention his last name, so as not to paint a target on his back if he's still alive.
He lived in Homs, on Jamil al-Azree, near Mahata Hospital when I lost track of him in 1976. I found one image of him since then, fighting like hell in 1979 in some "unrest" somewhere in the Middle East..
He did have some "business" dealing in Dhaharan, and with any luck he relocated there some time in the past nearly 50 years. Otherwise, since he was a Baathist, I have to presume that if he remained in Homs, he's either dead now or on the run, trying to catch the last boat out of Latakia.
The US should have stayed the hell out of it.
Life sucks some times.
Amir did tell me something that I never forgot, and which has proven true over my lifetime. He said "The warrr don't stopet in Syria. Last 2000 years, same war. Only the players change.":
This latest war there ain't gonna change that.. At best, it may create a short interlude. Very short, probably. AQ and ISIS both have big plans for Syria in their coming caliphate, and we've (the US, that is) just handed them the unrest and instability they'll need to realize it.
On days like this, I'm not even sure I want to identify myself as an "American"... not if this is what America has become. We seem to be pretty suicidal when the Democrats are in control. With "friends" like us, we don't even need any enemies ourselves.
.
The guy that taught me Arabic was a Syrian friend named Amir. I won't mention his last name, so as not to paint a target on his back if he's still alive.
He lived in Homs, on Jamil al-Azree, near Mahata Hospital when I lost track of him in 1976. I found one image of him since then, fighting like hell in 1979 in some "unrest" somewhere in the Middle East..
He did have some "business" dealing in Dhaharan, and with any luck he relocated there some time in the past nearly 50 years. Otherwise, since he was a Baathist, I have to presume that if he remained in Homs, he's either dead now or on the run, trying to catch the last boat out of Latakia.
The US should have stayed the hell out of it.
Life sucks some times.
Amir did tell me something that I never forgot, and which has proven true over my lifetime. He said "The warrr don't stopet in Syria. Last 2000 years, same war. Only the players change.":
This latest war there ain't gonna change that.. At best, it may create a short interlude. Very short, probably. AQ and ISIS both have big plans for Syria in their coming caliphate, and we've (the US, that is) just handed them the unrest and instability they'll need to realize it.
On days like this, I'm not even sure I want to identify myself as an "American"... not if this is what America has become. We seem to be pretty suicidal when the Democrats are in control. With "friends" like us, we don't even need any enemies ourselves.
.