"One Soldier - A Canadian Soldier's Fight Against The Islamic State."

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Sharps '63

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I'm currently half way through this new release and I recommend it to all with an interest in the war against ISIS.

Dillon Hillier was a Cpl. in the PPCLI during the final deployment to Afghanistan. Not happy with peace time soldiering, he quit and got a well paying job.
He kept abreast of the conflict against the Islamic State and decided he had more to give in the fight. He put together the kit he needed and paid his way to the Middle East.

Upon arrival, he met up with an officer of Peshmerga and was integrated into the unit. Wanting to get into the fighting ASAP, he liked up with the PKK, the Communist Kurdish organization deemed a "terrorist" unit by some western countries. Being atheists, they were particularly hated by ISIS and could expect no mercy, nor did they give it. Although respected for his fighting ability by the PKK, he felt like a prisoner and not entirely safe.

There was friction between Peshmerga and the PKK and he was warned not to associate with them by his Peshmerga friends. After a hell of a firefight against ISIS, he reconnected with Peshmerga.

He speaks of the media coverage he got which resulted in death threats to him and his family. Need I mention the name of the news organization that was the worst offender?

This book ranks along with "The Taliban Don't Wave" by Captain Semrau for it's intensity and clarity of what it's like to be under fire and kill the enemy.
"Hyena Road" (the book and the movie) pale by comparison. Paul Gross needs to make another movie.
 
Here's a couple of tidbits from the book:

"It doesn't matter where you are in the world; when you are getting ####ed, it's always for your own good."

This was said to Hillier when the PKK confiscated his lap top. Reminds me of the anti-gun claim that "gun control" is all about public safety.

"Virtually every Kurd knew the Texas state flag and could make the connection with former President George W. Bush. I never met a Kurd who could identify the red-and-white Velcro Maple Leaf patch that I wore on my TAC vest. When pressed to make an educated guess about where Canada was on a map, the most common response was 'somewhere in Europe'.
As Canadians, we pride ourselves on being loved around the world, but truthfully, the world couldn't care less about Canada. I hope that one day we can drop our sense of self-righteousness about how universally loved our country is. It isn't. If you go beyond the western world, Canada doesn't exist."

That makes you wonder about our 184 soldiers killed in Afghanistan and the contribution of our CF-18s in Syria. But quoting a line from "Lawrence of Arabia" - "The desert has soaked up more blood than you can imagine."

We still have a tanker aircraft refuelling coalition fighter bombers there and JTF 2 special force personnel on the ground. But what the hell - they're just from a country no one there has heard about.
 
We need more guys like Hillier to step forward. But hell, as gun owners, we can't even stand together to fight our own government! We've had it too good for too long and it's going to have to bottom out before gun owners get angry enough to do something besides ##### and whine about it.

Hillier mentions in the book that our government was putting pressure on the Kurds to send him home. One Kurdish General didn't want him in his command for fear that if we was captured and beheaded before a camera, it would be very negative PR.

I suspect that ultimately this is what is going to determine his service with the Kurds. I'll be finding out soon.

BTW - I became aware of the book when I heard him interviewed on CBC! The interviewer was not being negative in any way and cut him some slack as he isn't the most erudite public speaker. The guy is an honest, gutsy soldier doing what he thought was the right thing and what he was trained to do. Even though he wasn't restrained by our ROE, he had his own personal ethics and was happy that they were shared by his Kurdish brothers/sisters in arms.

Not so the PKK and other combatants in the fray. They hate each other and carry on long standings feuds just as Lawrence of Arabia said they would following WWI. Ignoring tribal territory and history as the Middle east was divided up by the Allies set the stage for today's cluster #### in the Middle East.
 
Sharps '63 said:
"Virtually every Kurd knew the Texas state flag and could make the connection with former President George W. Bush. I never met a Kurd who could identify the red-and-white Velcro Maple Leaf patch that I wore on my TAC vest. When pressed to make an educated guess about where Canada was on a map, the most common response was 'somewhere in Europe'.
As Canadians, we pride ourselves on being loved around the world, but truthfully, the world couldn't care less about Canada. I hope that one day we can drop our sense of self-righteousness about how universally loved our country is. It isn't. If you go beyond the western world, Canada doesn't exist."
Click to expand...

A million times this.

It's the first thing I picked up on in my travels.

We're told by the CBC and by our teachers growing up that Canada is this "well known and respected place" and that we should keep doing things for the UN because countries won't respect us if we don't... blah blah blah, etc.

The truth is that few people outside the west really know about us because our military is too small to make any considerable difference. We just don't want to build the muscle up to get people to know who we are, yet we go on and on about diplomacy... it's pathetic.

Also: if this guy was so worried about death threats, why did he write a book and do public interviews?
 
Tyler said:
A million times this.

It's the first thing I picked up on in my travels.

We're told by the CBC and by our teachers growing up that Canada is this "well known and respected place" and that we should keep doing things for the UN because countries won't respect us if we don't... blah blah blah, etc.

The truth is that few people outside the west really know about us because our military is too small to make any considerable difference. We just don't want to build the muscle up to get people to know who we are, yet we go on and on about diplomacy... it's pathetic.

Also: if this guy was so worried about death threats, why did he write a book and do public interviews?
Click to expand...

I was working with a US major, I took him to the war memorial, museum, and peace keeper monuments in Ottawa at his request. while at the peace keeper monument he identified 2 places that Canadians were service as peace keepers that were places he was at; at the same time. he said they didn't even know the Canadians were there.
 
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