UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Memories of Wars and Insurrections

When I was a boy, we lived in a place where, whilst I played with my toy lead soldiers, the cannons boomed. At another time, I watched soldiers marching on the main thoroughfare followed by rumbling tanks. War and violence were never far away.

Years after that, we lived in places where soldiers with submachine guns stood guard and patrolled the streets. In one place, I was mistaken for the local government commandant, during a guerrilla war--not an experience to be emulated. During that same "trouble," the undercover military intelligence of that government, thought me to be in league with the guerrillas. Also not an enviable position.

In another country, I rushed home to protect wife and children--unarmed, because guns were not allowed for civilians, but reserved for government forces, revolutionaries, and criminals---because rumors spread that they were sacking the homes of the Americans. The rumors were false, but two houses down the street, they sacked the house of the Army intelligence chief--who had fled the country, with his family, just in time. The speed with which the band that demolished that house did the job was unimaginable. There was no police, not even traffic laws were obeyed. The dictatorship had fallen.

I was the guest of foreign guerrilla facilitators in the United States and went into their country during their war. I saw American forces on clandstine missions, when not many back home in the U.S. outside the government knew that these were going on.

War and violence are never far away. History is the retelling.


Here are a couple of glimpses into my past life:

[Note: While in Honduras, during the mid 1980s, I observed U.S. Special Forces operations there.
-Leslie White - Islamic Danger blogspot contributor. . . . ]

"Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan"
--Warren Zevon

from http://islamicdangerfu.blogspot.com/2007/12/trouble-from-south-latin-american.html (Hint: see under "Honduras")

and

[On a personal note: I (Leslie White) met with a Texaco executive and was offered job possibilities in Saudi Arabia (with Aramco) and, when I declined because of the repressive conditions in the oil camps in Arabia (1), exploration opportunities in Turkey. I refused to consider these possible positions because I did not want to work nor set foot in any Islamic country. This was some time ago, so that my aversion to Islam predates the present confrontation with that ideology now again on the war path (jihad).]
_________________________
1. The agreement signed between Socal and the Saudis made patently clear that the Americans were in Arabia at the invitation of the Saudis and would adhere to the customs of the people and the land. That meant, among other restrictions, alcohol was strictly forbidden and consorting in any fashion with the women of Saudi Arabia was a crime punishable by death. In the eyes of the Saudis, the Americans were infidels, working in their lands at their own invitation and for Arab profit.

NOTE: "a crime punishable by death . . . Americans were infidels . . . " unless you were really greedy for money or strapped for it, you had to be nuts to work under these conditions. Oh, and by the way, if you went outside the American camps, and were seen smoking, any Arab could slap the cigarette out of your mouth with impunity. I know this from personal communication by an American who had worked in Sowdi. lw. And then about alcohol . . . strictly forbidden; lashes could be given for an infraction, and one British woman--I believe she had been a nurse--was sentenced to a whole shtload of those (sentence never carried out though).

from http://islamicdanger4u.blogspot.com/2008/01/pissed-off-by-price-of-gas-gasoline.html [where you can find this personal note under the heading "The Arabian-American Oil Company (Aramco)"--hint: look for the blue-colored typeface]

Should you want to contact me, leave a "Comment" stating so. I shall publish an e-mail address for that purpose here (at this post).