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Michigan man shows up in Chicago ER after getting wounded 6,200 miles away in Syria
Chicago Tribune ^ | March 2, 2018 | Rosemary Sobol and Patrick M. O'Connell

Posted on 03/04/2018 4:09:33 AM PST by Texas Fossil

The emergency room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital was packed with flu patients when Caleb Stevens hobbled through the doors on crutches one evening in January, his leg pulsing with pain from a week-old gunshot wound.

The clerk at the intake desk was unfazed when Stevens said he had been wounded in Syria. She took his passport and told him to join the rest of the people in the waiting room.

So he sat with his mom for 20 minutes, his right leg wrapped in a cast, a splint and bloody bandages. He was still wearing a red-and-white Christmas sock someone pulled over his foot when he was rushed to a Baghdad hospital for surgery.

As he looked around the ER, Stevens, 23, said he thought some of the other patients “seemed more at risk than I was.”

A week before and 6,200 miles away, Stevens was on the roof of a house in the small town of Abu Hamam near the Euphrates River, he said, battling Islamic State as a volunteer fighter with a Kurdish militia group. The Tribune confirmed much of Stevens’ unusual account through travel documents, medical records, emails and interviews with others who said they fought with him.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Syria; US: Illinois; US: Michigan; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: calebstevens; chicago; erdogan; illinois; kurdistan; michigan; receptayyiperdogan; syria; turkey; waronterror; wounded
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I've watched the conflict in Syria for a few years, most of it is from a detached view and no personal connection.

I found this an interesting read about one who went there, was injured and returned to the U.S.

Any war is fluid and unpredictable. This one especially.

1 posted on 03/04/2018 4:09:33 AM PST by Texas Fossil
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To: BeauBo; Candor7; ColdOne; Navy Patriot; caww; huldah1776; dp0622; Gene Eric; Freemeorkillme; ...
Syria Ping
2 posted on 03/04/2018 4:10:21 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: Texas Fossil

Good thing we don’t have a 21 trillion-dollar national debt.

Because otherwise we absolutely wouldn’t be able to afford to risk involvement in something like this.


3 posted on 03/04/2018 4:16:00 AM PST by gaijin
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To: gaijin

I never said we could.

Can we afford to live any longer? headshake

I’m not sure I want to test that.

I could be self sufficient here, most cannot.


4 posted on 03/04/2018 4:25:04 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: Texas Fossil

Reminds of the Spanish Civil war that became a magnet for US intelligentsia youth. Earnest Hemingway even got into the act.
There is a flow of freedom fighters from Europe also fighting alongside the Kurds.

But the Spanish Civil war was involved with the Nazis who supported the totalitarian dictator of Spain, they bombed on his behalf.

Now Russia is doing the same thing in against the Kurds with the aid of Turkey. How far off is WWIII, if we believe for a moment that history is cyclical. Putin lets on that he is in Syria to stay, a plenipotentiary of Iran.

Arayed in opposition is Israel , USA, India, and the wavering Arabs who run between the USA and Russia, as does Israel.

So now this injured man in Chicago signals the fact that America needs to run Putin out of the ME. And it needs doing ASAP.


5 posted on 03/04/2018 4:41:01 AM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: Candor7

History does not repeat itself. We can never re-fight old battles.

The seed of tomorrow are truly there in history. But interpreting them is another thing.

Neither the US or Russia want a direct conflict, but when we killed 250 Wagner contractors we came close. (Probably some Iranians too)

The Iranian base threat against Israel that is near Damascus in Syria is a major thing.


6 posted on 03/04/2018 5:01:05 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: Texas Fossil

Most likely an illegal immigrant looking for free health care, and now Social Security Disability!

My questions are:

What was he doing in Syria when his mother was here?

If shot in Syria, why did he go to the Bagdad Hospital?

He’s got some splainin to do.


7 posted on 03/04/2018 5:06:29 AM PST by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: Candor7

Reminds of the Spanish Civil War..... George Orwell too.


8 posted on 03/04/2018 5:07:38 AM PST by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: tired&retired

Yes, agreed.


9 posted on 03/04/2018 5:08:05 AM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: Texas Fossil

The Iranian base threat against Israel that is near Damascus in Syria is a major thing.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Agreed. Neither Israel nor the USA can allow that base to remain.Putins expansionism into the Ukraine , Crimea and Syria
needs to be apprehended. Turkey is now being wooed by Ruddia. Soon NATO will have one less member unless this pro Russian tide turns.


10 posted on 03/04/2018 5:10:46 AM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: Texas Fossil

Dont believe it. If you were somewhere safe like the Syrian war zone, would you risk going to Chicago?


11 posted on 03/04/2018 5:12:07 AM PST by gnarledmaw (Hive minded liberals worship leaders, sovereign conservatives elect servants.)
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To: Candor7

> So now this injured man in Chicago signals the fact that America needs to run Putin out of the ME.

The “fact”?

That’s not a fact, it’s an opinion.

It’s the kind of opinion that flows easily from the kind of person who expects someone else’s kids to die for his opinion, and someone else’s wealth and labor to pay for it.

It’s not the kind of opinion that flows easily from people who know people who have come back less than whole from one or more of our recent follies in adventurism.


12 posted on 03/04/2018 5:13:15 AM PST by thoughtomator (Number of arrested coup conspirators to date: 0)
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: Texas Fossil
“Hello, I’m a leftist from the United States interested in fighting for the cause in Rojava.’’

Stevens was soon joined by a classmate from Deep Springs College, Grayson Scott. “It was a pretty wild experience,’’ said Scott, who left the YPG months before Stevens was wounded.

“Caleb is an incredible person,” he said in a phone interview. “There isn’t anybody I’d rather fight fascism with.”


In a darker context, I see similar self-rightous idiocy in the BLM, Antifa and other leftist movements. People willing to take up arms against whomever they brand 'fascists'.

Keep armed and well disciplined, people. One day, in America, you're going to be fighting useful (but well armed) idiots like this.
14 posted on 03/04/2018 5:14:33 AM PST by farming pharmer
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To: Texas Fossil

Is Soros (or some other leftist social engineer) sponsoring these kids, only to bring them and their fighting experience back to train other leftist agitators?


15 posted on 03/04/2018 5:18:26 AM PST by farming pharmer
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To: akalinin

No. He is apparently not an antiFA type.

There were some antiFA who went to Syria. It was clear they were crazy and the Kurd shuffled them out of harms way and away from the fighting. I’ve not head about them in many months.

Note: I’ve never been there, but know people there. Ones that I do trust. They are not dummies.

They are very upset with US over the lack of effective pressure on Turkey to stop invading/bombing Efrin. Since the UN ceasefire, that assault has doubled. And have the casualties in Efrin.


16 posted on 03/04/2018 5:25:16 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: tired&retired
Most likely an illegal immigrant looking for free health care, and now Social Security Disability!

He’s got some splainin to do.

He explains all of it if you'd bothered to read.

Stevens is not an illegal immigrant. He's a West Point dropout who grew restless and became in idealistic mercenary. He sought treatment in several Syrian and Iraq hospitals.

Good grief, I swear this place is getting dumber by the day.

17 posted on 03/04/2018 5:25:41 AM PST by Drew68
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To: akalinin
Stevens had spent two years at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point when he started getting restless to join the conflict. “I didn’t want to do two more years of college and job hunting to do something to improve the world,” he said. “This felt like something intense and meaningful and something I could jump right into.”

I did not get the read you did about this guy. West Point is not a place you'd expect the Soros crowd from. My daughter's best friend now lives at West Point and her husband teaches there.

18 posted on 03/04/2018 5:32:36 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: Drew68

“Good grief, I swear this place is getting dumber by the day.”

Not dumb, but tired of reading all the garbage news articles. Thank you for calling me on it as I went back and read the entire article which was excellent. My hat is off to this young man. I was very surprised at how well the article was done, especially for a Chicago paper.

I apologize for my incorrect assumptions and statements.


19 posted on 03/04/2018 5:35:01 AM PST by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: tired&retired

Try reading the piece. None of what you posted makes any sense if you have read it.


20 posted on 03/04/2018 5:36:58 AM PST by MarMema
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