Posted on 02/12/2017 9:44:14 AM PST by Texas Fossil
Albert Harrington was 49 years old when he was killed in combat
Harrington served as a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps and was honorably discharged in August 1991. According to social media, Harrington had made multiple trips between the U.S. and Syria in the past and was considered a veteran fighter to the Kurdish people, who referred to him as Cekdar Rojava.
Harrington’s death makes him the second U.S. volunteer to be killed fighting alongside the Kurdish militia (YPG) in less than a month, with Paolo Todd, 33, of California, succumbing to wounds received fighting ISIS near Raqqa on January 15th.
A fellow U.S. volunteer, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke to American Military News about Harrington’s character.
“When others ran, he always chose to stand and fight. He died like a real Marine,” the volunteer said.
ARA news released a statement from forces assisting the YPG in Rojava:
“With great sadness [that] we announce the passing away of our good friend Albert Avery Harrington, an American Volunteer who was injured in a bomb explosion a few days ago in Syria and passed away from his injuries.”
That doesn’t make him special. It’s makes him a mercenary.
Under your theory aren't the various US citizens working as private contractors in foreign countries to assist friendly forces mercenaries? Like the guys who work on various CIA operations?
From your point of view the guys who got killed in Libya defending fellow Americans were mercenaries, since after all they weren't in the US military, they weren't the embassy guards and they were certainly getting paid to fight.
How do you know this guy wasn't a CIA embed with the Kurds?
This guy was fighting with the Kurds, and probably not far from US special forces guys doing the same thing. For all anybody knows he could have been a CIA embed.
We’re essentially in agreement. I have no reason to believe he was CIA, but he was definitely fighting with people who are fighting with CIA and SOF forces. I cannot say about the other poster, but some folks here are very much in the pro-Assad camp because of their fondness for Putin. They therefore claim anyone fighting against Assad is ISIS. They also ignore Assad’s ties to al Qaeda during the years the US was in Iraq and Assad was facilitating al Qaeda as they travel to Damascus and on to Iraq to kill Americans. They also ignore Assad’s ties to Hezbollah and Iran. But some even now support Iran since they believe we must fight all Sunni Muslims, which also ignores the fact that the Kurds are mostly Sunni. To the say the least, some people just don’t want Assad to lose and see him, like Putin, as a paladin of Christianity, a very weird idea.
Apparently at one point in time at least ISIS was close enough to the Obama administration that John McCain could meet with ISIS leaders in Syria.
I have met enough in the US military in it for the benefits... college, etc. Are we really going to do the my motives are more pure than your motives thing?
Maybe he didn’t go there because he liked it. Maybe he didn’t go there because he wanted money. Maybe he didn’t go there because he likes killing. Maybe he went there because he doesn’t like little girls getting their heads cut off, and maybe he doesn’t like little boys having their hands removed for failing to execute family members. Maybe he’s sick of girls being forced into sexual servitude and gangraped every day. Maybe he’s sick of hundreds of families being lined up facing ditches, strafed with gunfire, and covered over with dirt.
Probably doctored photos. I get it. You prefer Assad to McCain. After all, Assad fought for the USA and spent many years as a POW. McCain inherited a nation from his daddy, a socialist dictator, and he drops barrel bombs on market places.
Photo as posted by Sen. McCain
And you don't get anything. But clearly you are more concerned about Assad than ISIS, which is fine.
Not the Marines. Marines don’t get the “perks” that the others do. You join the Marines to become a Marines, that’s it.
Thank you for the post. I didn’t expect to see the kind of crap responses here that I would normally see in the comments section on a Daily Kos article.
So those are my opinions. I don't think saying or implying that Assad is a good guy or someone who shares our values is accurate. I don't see any reason to fool ourselves about him.
I’ll give you that. Marines are a pleasure to work with.
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