#tikrit

[shakir2]

Baitul-Hikmah [House of Wisdom] of Baghdad  

The heyday of Baghdad was 1,200 years ago when it was the thriving capital of the Muslim civilization. For about 500 years, the city boasted the cream of intellectuals and culture, a reputation gained during the reigns of some of its most famous Caliphs (Al-Rashid, Al-Ma’mun, Al-Mu’tadhid, and Al-Muktafi).   As one of the world’s biggest and wealthiest cities at the time, Baghdad had amassed…

[crusera]

The Sultan, they said, was a good man. Soft, quickly moved to tears. Out of compassion, he bought the freedom of a Christian woman's stolen daughter. Even Walther von der Vogelweide, the minnesinger in distant Germany, praised the "mildness" of the powerful ruler in the Orient, whose name has a good reputation in the West: Saladin, a righteous man.

He was a man who always kept his word, even to his enemies.

He let his subjects drag him to court, because God's laws applied equally to everyone. Also for him, the ruler who managed to do what no one had ever managed before: to unite the Islamic world of the Middle East after centuries of discord and to wrest Jerusalem, the holy city of the Muslims, from the Christians in 1187.

His name translates as "righteousness of faith", and Saladin is indeed a devout Muslim. Nevertheless, after his conquest of the Holy Land, he allowed the Christians and Jews there to continue praying to their God. This is another reason why, more than half a millennium later, Western Enlightenment thinkers would make him the epitome of the tolerant ruler.

But this al-Malik an-Nasir Salah ad-Din Abu'l-Muzaffer Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi, known as Saladin for short, also had other sides.

He could be treacherous, vile and mean. He did not shy away from murder. Nevertheless, this man fascinated his contemporaries. He became one of the most revered rulers of the Islamic world and the most important opponent of the Crusaders.

Saladin was born in 1138 in Tikrit (in present-day Iraq), the son of a Kurdish officer. During his political career, Saladin was the first to bring Egypt's army under his control.

Saladin, a Sunni, now founds two universities where theology is taught according to Sunni theology - a signal that he is on the side of the population. He also abolished a number of taxes that contradicted the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet.

Saladin's subsequent conquests shock the Christian world. By 1174, his power extended from North Africa to the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. In 1186, he ruled from the Nile to the Tigris.

At the height of his power, the Sultan even dreamed of taking the Holy War to Europe, conquering Rome - and putting the Pope in chains.

The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099 and held it until Saladin besieged it in 1187 and handed it over to the Ayyubid dynasty, a Muslim sultanate that ruled the Middle East at the beginning of the 12th century.

Saladin wanted to recapture the city, which had previously been ruled by Muslims.

For Muslims, Jerusalem is a place where important events in the life of Jesus and other important personalities took place. It is also the place where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven according to the traditional interpretation of the Koran and other texts.

In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. Muslims believe that Muhammad was brought to Jerusalem during his night journey (Isra and Mi'raj).

The name Jesus is mentioned twenty-five times in the Holy Qur'an, often in the form 'Isa ibn Maryam, which means "Jesus, son of Mary". In the Quran, he is given the unique title "Messiah" (al-masih in Arabic), which means "anointed one". He is considered one of many prophets from the lineage of the Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham (peace be upon him). Many Muslim traditions regard it as an ideal example of spirituality. Unlike Christians, who generally believe in a triune God, Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet who was to lead mankind on the straight path of monotheism and obedience to God (Allah).

When Jerusalem also fell, two kings and an emperor set off for the Holy Land with their armies from 1189 onwards. One of the monarchs is King Richard I of England. Even before the armed pilgrimage, he had already earned himself an honourable name: "Lionheart."

Saladin lies in wait for the Christians in the forests of Arsuf near the Mediterranean coast. But King Richard of England had anticipated the attack; on 7 September 1191, his troops won a clear victory. Nevertheless, the Muslim army is still strong enough to block the road to Jerusalem.

Saladin's reconquest of Jerusalem in 1187 prompted Pope Gregory VIII to organize the Third Crusade. From 1189 to 1192, Saladin lost Acre and Jaffa and was defeated in the field at Arsūf. The Crusaders retreated to Europe without seizing Jerusalem, but Saladin's military reputation had been damaged. He died in 1193.

[naturalrights-retard]

According to neoconservative theoreticians David Wurmser and Richard Perle, George W. Bush’s Iraq War II (supported by Senator Biden) was supposed to weaken Iran and Syria and therefore Hezbollah’s threat to Israel. Instead, the war empowered Iran as the U.S. put their best friends from the Hakim family’s Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and their Badr Brigade in power. Gen. David Petraeus turned their death and torture squads into the Iraqi army.

Obama’s dirty war in Syria (Supported by Vice-President Biden) was supposed to weaken Iran by taking out their friend Bashar al-Assad, the “keystone” of the arch of Iranian power in the region. Instead Assad asked Iran, Hezbollah and Russia to come help and is now more dependent on them than ever before, especially after Western, Turkish, GCC and Israeli support for the bin Ladenites blew up into the ISIS Caliphate which required Obama to launch Iraq War III (2014–2018), back on the side of the Iraqi Shi’ites they wish they hadn’t fought Iraq War II for. US planes even flew air cover for Iranian Quds force in the battle for Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit. In Syria, our guys were left at the al Tanf base – why? – to block the so-called “land bridge” from Tehran to Beirut that George W. Bush and Barack Obama built for them. They pretend it’s about ISIS, but, though they are still there, it is a lie that that is their primary mission.

[mardiahdiioo]

PERNIKAHAN IMPIAN

Jalan menuju surga dan untuk berkhidmat kepada agama,bukan hanya pernikahan yang berlandaskan cinta, tapi juga cita-cita. Pernikahan yang darinya mampu mengubah arah peradaban.

Seorang penguasa wilayah Tikrit bernama Najmuddin Ayyub ditawari saudaranya untuk menikahi anak seorang Sultan yang cantik dan menawan saat itu. Namun, Najmuddin Ayyub menjawab bahwa wanita itu tidak cocok untuknya.

Lantas saudaranya bertanya tentang wanita seperti apa yang cocok dengannya. Najmuddin Ayyub menjawab tegas,

" Aku menginginkan istri yang shalehah yang bisa menggandeng tanganku ke surga dan melahirkan anak yang dia tarbiyah dengan baik hingga jadi pemuda dan ksatria serta mampu mengembalikan Baitul Maqdis ke tangan kaum muslimin."

Walaupun hidup di wilayah Tikrit, Irak, yang jaraknya begitu jauh dari Baitul Maqdis, hati dan pikiran Najmuddin Ayyub senantiasa dekat dengan Baitul Maqdis. Oleh karena itu, segala impian impiannya, termasuk soal pernikahan, ia curahkan untuk kebebasan Baitul Maqdis.

Najmuddin Ayyub bermimpi menikahi istri yang shalihah dan melahirkan ksatria yang akan mengembalikan Baitul Maqdis ke pangeran kaum muslimin dari jajahan pasukan Salib.

Hingga pada suatu waktu, ketika ia sedang bersama seorang syekh, datanglah seorang gadis biasa yang berasal dari kampung. Saat gadis kampung itu ditanya oleh syekh, kenapa ia menolak pinangan laki-laki yang tampan dan juga mapan, gadis itu menjawab bahwa laki-laki seperti itu tidak cocok dengannya.

Lantas Syekh bertanya, " laki-laki seperti apa yang engkau mau?"

Dari balik tirai, gadis itu menjawab,

"Aku ingin seorang pemuda yang menggandeng tanganku ke surga dan melahirkan darinya anak yang menjadi ksatria yang akan mengembalikan Baitul Maqdis kepada kaum muslimin, dia cocok untukku!"

Impian yang sama persis dengan apa yang Najmuddin impian. Maka tanpa ragu ia berdiri, ia lalu meminta kepada syekh untuk dinikahkan dengan gadis itu. Sungguh gayung bersambut, satu tujuan yang akhirnya dipertemukan dalam perjalanan.

Hingga akhirnya, pernikahan mereka melahirkan seorang putra bernama Yusuf bin Najmuddin al-Ayyubi atau lebih dikenal dengan nama Shalahuddin al-ayyubi, Shalahuddin al-ayyubi merupakan tokoh yang berperan dalam membuka gerbang Baitul Maqdis.

MaasyaaAllah, benarlah bahwa apabila impian akhirat kita ikhlas karena Allah maka pasti akan datang pertolongan Allah.

Semoga kita tak sekedar menikah untuk menuntaskan kesendirian,tapi menikah dengan harapan bisa turut mengubah arah peradaban. Berjalan berdampingan, menghabiskan sisa perjalanan dengan mengharap surga sebagai ujungnya, dan kebermanfaatan sebagai jembatannya. Indah nian pernikahan yang dibangun atas dasar iman,cinta,dan cita-cita.

📚MTAHM karya AlfiAlghazi (Hal. 122-123)

[follow-up-news]

Syria’s U.S.-backed Kurdish-led force has handed over to Baghdad two Islamic State militants suspected of involvement in mass killings of Iraqi soldiers in 2014, a war monitor said Friday. The report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights came a day after the Iraqi National Intelligence Service said it had brought back to the country three IS members from outside Iraq. The intelligence service did not provide more details. The Islamic State group captured an estimated 1,700 Iraqi soldiers after seizing Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base. Shortly after taking Tikrit, IS posted graphic images of IS militants shooting and killing the soldiers. Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the U.S.-backed force handed over two IS members to Iraq. It was not immediately clear where Iraqi authorities brought the third suspect from. The 2014 killings, known as the Speicher massacre, sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fueled the mobilization of Shiite militias in the fight against IS, a Sunni extremist group.

[terroristiraqi]

opinions on the shoe statue in tikrit (i think it was) because that shit lives rent free in my head

oh this bad boy?

obsessed with her

[griim]

Gemma once spent one year in Lebanon during the Hezbollah crisis and spent time bouncing between the Green Zone, Fallujah, and Tikrit. On really hot nights, she misses the samoon bread they’d bake at 11 pm for the evening rush, and sometimes she craves the shawarmas and dolmas of Beirut. The food was one of the few memories that she has of her deployments, well one of the few good ones. The tea also was something she remembered, the sweet taste and the hints of cardamom and the sugar that was enough to set her teeth on edge. She remembered meeting the street vendors who, while on edge about the wars and such still managed to be hospitable. Though it was probably because they were getting business. There were also the mornings when you would wake up, just before the town and you could hear the people working and smell the spices they were bringing in for the day.

She even remembers moments where she and her COs would go to cool off, the children sometimes would put on their helmets and make faces. Though Gemma watched from a distance, usually uneasy around the kids. The water from the small ‘lake’ felt nice and cooled her off from the hot sun, though to be followed by the sand that got everywhere. But in those moments she felt human, she felt like she belonged. Sometimes when she closes her eyes… She’s there again.

[theveteranside]

Here is my disclaimer, here's your one chance to run away. Don't get all offended after this. Your risk, not mine. What you are about to read is some truth, from one Operation Iraqi Freedom II veteran, although the end of the series may come as a bit of a surprise.

Do you know how hot it gets in Iraq? One-hundred-and-thirty fucking degrees, at least. One of my battle buddies used to say, "Its hotter than all balls!" No lie, it is for fucks sake. 

I joined the Army AFTER 9/11, real genius move. I went in having a Quartermaster job, 92G. Yes, yes, a goddamn cook. Why? Because pushing back my ship date cost me my slot as 54B, NBC (Nuclear Biological and Chemical). So, I took the next best thing, a big bonus.

Basic Training, check.

AIT, check.

Report to duty station in Wurzburg, Germany, check.

Deploy to Tikrit, Iraq on Mother's day 2004, fucking check.

In-process in Kuwait for two hellish weeks. Hurry up and wait, story of a soldiers life. Check.

Land in Tikrit, check.

Settle in at my living quarters....in a marble palace in Sadaam's hometown? Holy hell...

These palaces that we lived in were unbelievable. Marble. Gold. Crystal. One square mile of luxury, while outside those walls were desolate. Power outages were rolling. Water was dirty. Us? We were all pretty fucking rough, chain-smoking, gutter-mouthed, horny bastards that had each other's back in life, and in death. To this day, I'd trust my battle buddies with my life, because it just doesn't get any more real than that. Even if I haven't seen them or talked to them in years, there still lies that special bond. Blood and guts, no question.

On a daily basis, temperatures rose well above a hundred degrees. We wore our full battle at all times because The Big Red One was held to higher standards. Those higher standards nearly gave us heat stroke on a daily. DRINK MORE WATER! Hydrate fucker! So much fucking water. 

Full Battle Rattle consisted of full DCUs, flak vests weighing in at 20lbs maybe? And that's without add ons. On top of that was usually a camel pack with at least a half gallon of water, give or take. Six magazines of 5.56 rounds in Molly gear also attached to that flack vest. You have your standard M16A2 on a three point sling, eight pounds. On top of our already hard-headed noggin, a Kevlar helmet. Couple pounds. By the end of each day, lovely, thick salt rings in/on/through our DCUs.

On top of that shit, we were peppered with mortars and RPGs every fucking day, more than once, more than twice. Them hajis would drive over the bridge crossing the Tigris River with a dude, or woman.......or teenager......in the back ready to sit up and fire in hopes of blindy taking one of us, or some of us, out with a bang. It got to the point that it happened so much that we stopped ducking and diving. We wished a motherfucker would, cause they'd have hell to pay. When an RPG crosses about a foot in front of your face while scootin down the road, it pisses you off so much so that you turn around, head back to point A, kick a fucking door open, sit in front of a cooler with a cigg hanging out your mouth, and contemplate a whole scenario of blood and guts, not your own either. If only they were close enough....

**Break**

I think about this today. From what I can gather, in all my non-scientific-scientific-next-best-educated-life-experience-guess, is that we were out there for approximately 365± days, living on pure adrenaline, 24/7 in some form or another. So after a while, THAT becomes your body's "normal," then you get shipped back to duty station, asked a couple questions, deemed safe and normal, and then shipped for thirty-day leave and expected to adjust to normal civilian life with your family and kids and shit. The government failed us, oh so badly.

**Break**

Then, one day, they say, "S******! You'll be training on the .50cal, get ready!" I think, "How you figure?" But there I go......

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.12 (after 1940)

1940 – World War II: Thirteen thousand British and French troops surrender to Major General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. 1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday. 1943 – The Holocaust: Germany liquidates the Jewish Ghetto in Brzeżany, Poland (now Berezhany, Ukraine). Around 1,180 Jews are led to the city's old Jewish graveyard and shot. 1944 – World War II: Operation Overlord: American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Normandy, France. 1950 – An Air France Douglas DC-4 crashes near Bahrain International Airport, killing 46 people. 1954 – Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him at the time the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2017, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged ten and nine at the time of their deaths, are declared as saints. 1963 – NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement. 1963 – The film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, is released in US theaters. It was the most expensive film made at the time. 1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa. 1967 – The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional. 1975 – India, Judge Jagmohanlal Sinha of the city of Allahabad ruled that India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had used corrupt practices to win her seat in the Indian Parliament, and that she should be banned from holding any public office. Mrs. Gandhi sent word that she refused to resign. 1979 – Bryan Allen wins the second Kremer prize for a man-powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross. 1981 – The first of the Indiana Jones film franchise, Raiders of the Lost Ark, is released in theaters. 1982 – A nuclear disarmament rally and concert is held in New York City. 1987 – The Central African Republic's former emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule. 1987 – Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. 1988 – Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81, crashes short of the runway at Libertador General José de San Martín Airport, killing all 22 people on board. 1990 – Russia Day: The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty. 1991 – In modern Russia's first democratic election, Boris Yeltsin is elected as the President of Russia. 1991 – Kokkadichcholai massacre: The Sri Lankan Army massacres 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village of Kokkadichcholai near the Eastern Province town of Batticaloa. 1993 – An election takes place in Nigeria and is won by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. Its results are later annulled by the military government of Ibrahim Babangida. 1999 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFor) enters the province of Kosovo in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 2009 – A disputed presidential election in Iran leads to wide-ranging local and international protests. 2014 – Between 1,095 and 1,700 Shia Iraqi people are killed in an attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. It is the second deadliest act of terrorism in history, only behind 9/11. 2016 – Forty-nine civilians are killed and 58 others injured in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States; the gunman, Omar Mateen, is killed in a gunfight with police. 2018 – United States President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea held the first meeting between leaders of their two countries in Singapore. 2019 – Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is inaugurated as the second president of Kazakhstan.

[abokoota]

Iraq -Tikrit

River Tigris

[nievesmorena]

SULTAN SALADINO

Saladino, conocido por su nombre completo como Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, fue una figura histórica prominente en el siglo XII, reconocido como sultán de Egipto y Siria. Su vida y logros se entrelazan con la historia de las Cruzadas y la dinámica política del Medio Oriente medieval.

Nacido en 1137 en Tikrit, actual Irak, Saladino fue criado en una familia kurda de renombre. Su carrera comenzó bajo la tutela de su tío Shirkuh, un comandante militar en el servicio de Nur ad-Din, el poderoso líder zengí de Siria y Mosul. A través de sus habilidades y lealtad, Saladino ascendió rápidamente en las filas militares y políticas.

La entrada de Saladino en la historia egipcia fue un punto de inflexión. En 1169, después de la muerte de Shirkuh, Saladino fue nombrado visir de Egipto, una posición que le otorgó un poder sustancial. Transformó Egipto en una base poderosa, consolidando su control y reformando tanto el ejército como la economía. A la muerte de Nur ad-Din en 1174, Saladino se movió para tomar control de Damasco, marcando el comienzo de su dominio sobre Siria.

Saladino es quizás mejor conocido por su rol en las Cruzadas. En 1187, lideró a las fuerzas musulmanas en la histórica Batalla de Hattin, donde derrotó a los cruzados y capturó Jerusalén, que había estado bajo control cristiano desde la Primera Cruzada. Este evento provocó la Tercera Cruzada, liderada por figuras como Ricardo Corazón de León, rey de Inglaterra.

A pesar de su firme oposición a los cruzados, Saladino fue respetado por amigos y enemigos por su caballerosidad y justicia. Sus interacciones con Ricardo Corazón de León se han convertido en legendarias, simbolizando el respeto mutuo entre adversarios formidables.

Saladino murió en 1193 en Damasco. Su legado va más allá de sus logros militares; también es recordado por su magnanimidad, su liderazgo, y su habilidad para unir a diferentes facciones musulmanas. Su vida y su leyenda continúan siendo temas de admiración y estudio en la historia del Medio Oriente y más allá.

La Biblioteca de Alejandría

#Porsimelees❤️

[iweb-rdc001]

Histoire : Le 13 décembre, le jour où le dictateur irakien Saddam Hussein a été capturé dans un trou de souris par des militaires américains

Ce jour-là… 13 décembre 2003, après 9 mois de traque par les forces américaines, Saddam Hussein est capturé dans un trou de souris de 2m de profondeur, près de son fief de Tikrit (au nord de Bagdad). Il était en possession de 750.000$ US, 2 kalachnikovs et un pistolet. Tout commence en fin de matinée lorsque l’armée américaine lance l’opération “Aube rouge”. À 18h, 600 hommes de la 4è division…

[ingarbingar]

Beberapa hari yang lalu ada seorang teman bertanya kepadaku, “tanda-tanda dia jodoh kita tuh apa?” Sebagai perempuan yang belum menikah, justru aku juga mempertanyakan hal yang serupa. Kalau boleh jawab sotoy, mungkin salah satu tandanya berupa kecocokan. Namun, jawaban itu mengundang pertanyaan lainnya; cocok itu yang bagaimana?

Lalu aku teringat kisah cinta Najmuddin Ayyub. Seorang pemimpin Tikrit yang belum menikah dalam waktu yang lama. Saudaranya yaitu Asadudin Syirkuh pun bertanya, “wahai saudaraku, mengapa kamu belum menikah?” Najmuddin menjawab, “aku belum menemukan seseorang yang cocok.”

Asadudin Syirkuh kemudian menawarkan bantuan melamarkan perempuan untuk Najmuddin. Perempuan yang ditawarkan Asadudin pun merupakan anak seorang sultan dan putri menteri agung dari para menteri agung zaman Abbasiyah. Namun Najmuddin berkata, “mereka tidak cocok untukku.”

Asadudin Syirkuh yang bingung mendengar jawaban tersebut lalu bertanya, “lantas, siapa yang cocok bagimu?” Dengan lantang Najmuddin menjawab, “aku menginginkan istri yang salihah. Seseorang yang bisa menggandeng tanganku ke surga dan melahirkan anak yang ia tarbiyah dengan baik hingga menjadi ksatria yang mampu mengembalikan Baitul Maqdis ke tangan kaum muslimin.”

Asadudin tidak heran dengan pernyataan saudaranya tersebut, tapi ia bertanya-tanya, “di mana kamu bisa mendapatkan orang seperti itu?” Dan jawaban Najmuddin adalah, “barang siapa ikhlas niat karena Allah, akan Allah karuniakan pertolongan.”

Suatu hari, Najmuddin berbincang dengan seorang Syaikh di masjid Tikrit. Kemudian datanglah seorang gadis memanggil Syaikh dari balik tirai dan ia berbicara pada gadis itu. Tanpa sengaja Najmuddin mendengar perkataan Syaikh kepada gadis tersebut, “kenapa kau tolak utusan yang datang ke rumahmu untuk melamarmu?”

Sang gadis menjawab, “wahai Syaikh. Ia adalah sebaik-baik pemuda yang mempunyai ketampanan dan kedudukan. Tetapi ia tidak cocok untukku.” Syaikh kemudian bertanya, “siapa pemuda yang kau inginkan?”

Gadis tersebut pun menjawab pertanyaan Syaikh dengan lantang, “aku ingin seorang pemuda yang menggandeng tanganku ke surga dan melahirkan anak darinya yang menjadi ksatria yang akan mengembalikan Baitul Maqdis ke tangan kaum muslimin.”

Bagai tersambar petir Najmuddin mendengar jawaban gadis itu. Bagaimana mungkin gadis itu menjawab dengan jawaban yang persis sama dengan apa yang pernah Najmuddin ungkapkan kepada saudaranya. Sungguh semuanya tidak mungkin terjadi bila tanpa campur tangan Allah.

Seketika Najmuddin berdiri dan memanggil sang Syaikh, “aku ingin menikah dengan gadis ini. Aku ingin istri seperti dia. Seseorang yang salihah. Seseorang yang menggandeng tanganku ke surga dan melahirkan anak yang ia didik dan kelak menjadi ksatria yang akan mengembalikan Baitul Maqdis kepada kaum muslimin.”

Karena kesamaan visi tersebut, menikahlah mereka. Dan dari pernikahan tersebut, lahirlah Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi, seorang pemuda yang mampu menaklukkan banyak peperangan.

Cerita tersebut membuatku semakin mengimani, al-arwahu junudun mujannadah. Sebuah sabda dari Nabi Muhammad SAW. Jiwa-jiwa manusia itu seperti sepasukan. Berada dalam satu barisan dan komando yang sama. Setiap jiwa akan selalu mengajak untuk berkumpul dengan jiwa lainnya yang memiliki kecenderungan yang sama. Baik prinsip, ideologi ataupun keyakinan yang sama.

Sama seperti jiwa Najmuddin dan sang gadis yang sama-sama memiliki impian dan visi yang sama. Maka Allah pertemukan dan satukan mereka dalam pernikahan. Menerbitkan dan menenggelamkan matahari saja Tuhan mampu, apalagi perkara menggerakkan hati dan kaki manusia.

Ada berjuta-juta manusia di muka bumi ini. Dan setiap harinya ada beribu-ribu kesempatan dan juga kemungkinan kita bertemu satu atau dua dari jutaan manusia tersebut. Pertanyaannya, dari jutaan manusia tersebut, bagaimana caranya kita menemukan seseorang yang cocok?

Mungkin jawabannya adalah dengan menemukan diri sendiri. Mengetahui apa yang jiwa kita inginkan, apa yang sebenarnya dibutuhkan. Berpegang teguh dan berperilaku selayaknya kebutuhan atau mimpi tersebut.

Dan meyakini bahwa Tuhan akan membimbing kita dalam pertemuan dan penemuan. Bahkan tanpa kita mencari berlari kesana-kemari.

Sebaik-baiknya cara mencari adalah dengan menjadi. Karena ruh-ruh yang sama akan mengenali satu sama lain….

-Lampung, November 17th 2023

[carnidfanboywarrior705]

Why i decided to Write a Fanfic Starring Melissa and Eric? Well "The Ghost of the Soldier" Fanfic needs a Spinoff, More of a Prequel. I am looking for Other Casts in other shows or movies. But since i discovered Chenford and Joined too as a Multishipper, I decided to Cast them.

The Story of Captain John Macmillan (P,layed by Eric Winter) needs to be told and His love for Sergeant Andrea Addison (Played by Melissa O'Neil) needs to be told.

In the Main Fanfic, Captain John Macmillan was in Tikrit as a Mysterious "Ghost of Tikrit" and It turns out that Macmillan hides in Iraq after the US withdrawal in Iraq and Addison's Death.

(Read Story: https://www.wattpad.com/1329370439-the-ghost-of-the-soldier-the-ghost-of-tikrit)

The Story of Macmillan and Addison needs to be told.

The Fanfic was highly inspired by The Rookie, Call of Duty and more.

Feel Free to Read the Original "The Ghost of the Soldier" Chapters of Macmillan and Addison here:

And Read the Spinoff: MACMILLAN: THE FIRST KNIGHT.

[theveteranside]

Smoke 'Em If Ya Got 'Em

One thing you will notice is that we smoke like chimneys. We smoke so gawd damned much because it's about the only thing that calms our nerves. We live with adrenaline in our veins for roughly a year straight (common theme here!) and weren't given the tools to cope. So, this is just what we do. We fidget, we curse, we at times get rowdy, we drink, we smoke. Ain't no two ways about it.

But in the middle of nothing and the desert, we need our ciggs. Once a month a Conex shipment comes into Tikrit's PX. I really don't know what comes in those shipments. Except cigarettes. Cigarettes are in that Conex. Gawd forbid you oversleep or take too long of a shit and miss out on your smokes. See, we all had figured out the timing of this here shipment. Every first of the month, give or take a couple days. Every soldier knew that schedule, especially the smokers. We had learned this schedule after one too many times ending up with cartons of USA Golds. This particular brand of cigarettes was the very bottom of the barrel. The only thing lower than this was the cigarettes from the Iraqi economy, most likely the Miami's.

These, damn things were the most stale things that have ever existed on the planet. After smoking a Miami, it made your throat so hoarse you lost your voice by doing nothing other than inhaling. Swear. Smoke one of these bad boys and you'd be coughing up phlegm for a week. Sure, we could have just avoided it all together by NOT smoking at all, but where's the fun in that?

We smoked to pass the time. We smoked when we were "happy." We smoked when we were sad, mad, whatever you can think of. When we had to "hurry up and wait," we smoked. After formation, before and after convoys. When we woke up, when we finally got the time to sleep. We pulled gate guard holding our weapons with a smoke hanging out the side of our pie holes, never once removing it to ash. If we needed to communicate to our battle buddy something important, we did it with a lit cigarette wagging off to the side of our cursing mouths. If there was a briefing we needed to be at, we'd go, and then when we needed to ten minute break our Platoon Sergeants announced, "Alright, smoke 'em if you got 'em!" That was our cue.

I remember when my unit's time was finally up in Iraq and we were heading back to Germany, we had to endure a ten hour flight back from Kuwait to Frankfurt....with one stop along the way. That's all we were really factoring in, our next chance to smoke. Our layover was to be in Istanbul. Weeeheeeheeel, guess what? Nobody was allowed to step foot off of the airplane. Say what???

Now, imagine this if you will...At least a hundred or so soldiers, on one plane, stopped for two hours solid, not able to get off the damn thing to go enjoy a damn cigarette. What. In. The. Fuck. We got antsy. We became irritable. We became shitty. We may have been close to becoming hostile. So what did we get? NCO's managed to get the crew to pop open the doors. And there we were, going to by two, forming a line, just to be able to hang halfway out the airplane doors to be able to enjoy three quarters of a cigarette. But it shut us the fuck up. I imagine we were like a bunch of screaming toddlers....with M16A2s.

Humph, craving a cigarette. Good thing I don't smoke anymore....

[gonocontact]

Take 1:

I had met the Narcissist, the first time, back in 2004 while deployed in Iraq. I remember seeing them and noticing how attractive I thought they were. In passing, we would smile at each other, say "Hi" and go about our day. At some point, I don't remember exactly how it happened, the Narcissist had invited me to hang out and watch a movie.

At that time, I was twenty-years-old, they were twenty-one, although I thought they were a couple years older. The invitation excited me, one, because of my attraction to them, and two, because every other person around me just went googly over them. The Narcissist chose me.

That evening came and I went to their "room". Now, you have to understand, during the Operation Iraqi Freedom II deployment, soldiers were not living under normal circumstances. Essentially, we were a bunch of soldiers thrown together in a dust bowl with weapons and ordered to "civilize the country of Iraq" and "here, live in Saddam's palaces in Tikrit while you're at it." So, we lived in this HUGE palace that sat over a lake, The Water Palace. Inside were these enormous rooms that could comfortably house a platoon all on its own. I lived together with about ten other soldiers on the second floor in a room that had twenty foot ceilings, grand windows, marble, crystal, gold and porcelain. Our rooms were sectioned off with plywood and studs and we made do. Honestly, it wasn't all that bad, I suppose.

The Narcissist lived down on the first floor with much of the same set up as I had. So, that evening, I walked down this dangerous ass staircase, that had no banister (I always found this hilarious, especially when the lights didn't work) to the Narcissist's cubicle-room. The evening wasn't very interesting because apparently, they had popped some sort of pill beforehand. They put on a movie for us to watch and pretty much passed out from the effects of whatever meds they took. Already there were red flags...

So, that was an abrupt end to that night. After that, they seemed a little shameful but would throw a smile here and there in passing again. A few months later, still in Iraq, I had met the person that was to be my future spouse and parent to my children. In a way, now, I look at that as sort of a saving grace. At the time, I was young and naïve, and the Narcissist most likely would have had many more years to take advantage of.

Let's fast forward to 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic.....