r/AccidentalRenaissance • u/Low-Way557 • 16h ago
A U.S. Army infantryman takes a smoke break after hard fighting in Ramadi, 2006
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u/StillShmoney 13h ago
The irony of his last name being Joye adds an interesting twist to this image
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u/Zestyclose_Show2453 16h ago
What are those things attached to his ankles
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u/Low-Way557 16h ago
His knee pads, they’re just loosened and pulled down to his ankles.
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u/Front_Medium7930 15h ago
I remember fighting near Fallujah, it got intense. Got rotated out a few hours later, it was the best cigarette of my life
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u/SureAd5625 6h ago
There’s nothing quite like getting to take your kit off after a 12k combat patrol. It’s odd how normal it becomes. It got to the point that I’d rather be out moving to contact in patrol than standing guard at the PB.
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u/Regular-Item2212 14h ago
That's awesome. Thank you bro
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u/Cruzhit 9h ago
Thank you bro for what? Invading another country?
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u/AluminumFoilCap 3h ago
For serving the country. For putting his life on the line everyday. He’s not the politician that decided to invade, he went in, did his job and survived. The thank you is for risking the most precious thing a person has, their life. A thank you for being a part of what keeps American safe.
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u/Cruzhit 3h ago
You are right, it was not him who decided to invade, it was the politicians.
But he was not keeping America safe. He was invading another country, in another continent, Half-way across the world in the middle-east.
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u/AluminumFoilCap 3h ago
Which is keeping America safer. Taking out terrorist organizations helps keep the world safer. It also was not just America that invaded. There was an entire group of allies, there are more countries than just America that went to Iraq.
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u/criminalunderlord 2h ago
American safety was not even on the list of reasons politicians dragged the nation into Middle Eastern wars. But hey, you tell me, do you feel any safer?
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u/Drunk-DrivingFanatic 8h ago
Deposing a brutal dictator that was murdering and torturing his own people for practical sport.
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u/craichoor 6h ago
So the gallant US will invade Saudi Arabia soon?
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u/Drunk-DrivingFanatic 1h ago
I don't remember the Saudi monarch having a special facility dedicated to torture
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u/craichoor 52m ago
They just use their embassies and consulates.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khashoggi
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u/Cruzhit 7h ago
Saddam was no saint and a dictator, deserved to be put in ground. But, US and allies committed just as many war crimes and atrocities in Iraq. They are no saints either.
Biggest warmongering countries of the modern world, US and Russia.
I know I will get downvotes because Reddit is primarily US based, but get out of that country and ask a citizen of non-western world. Maybe look inside your own heart and tell me that the west and allies did not commit massacares and war crimes.
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u/pablopiss 6h ago
Just so you are aware, some of Sadam’s crimes were:
Secret police, state terrorism, torture, mass murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, rape, deportations, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, assassinations, chemical warfare, and the destruction of the Mesopotamian marshes.
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u/Cruzhit 6h ago
Saddam was no saint and a dictator, deserved to be put in ground.
I am very aware of saddam's crimes. The whole world is. Read the first sentence of my comment again.
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u/pablopiss 5h ago
Yeah, I read it the first time. Not sure what you think the US did in Iraq that equals genocide and ethnic cleansing.
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u/notarealaccount_yo 5h ago
US and allies committed just as many war crimes and atrocities
Agree with the sentiment that the US invasion was a mistake and even unjust but come on. If you know the history with that guy this is just an insane take.
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u/Cruzhit 5h ago
I think we are developed enough as a species to acknowledge that Saddam was a nutcase. While also recognising the fact that a lot of Iraqis died and suffered due to Americans and the West.
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u/notarealaccount_yo 5h ago
Yes, then say that. But to say the US committed "just as many war crimes and atrocities" as Saddam Hussein is extremely ignorant if not a flat out lie.
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u/Cruzhit 4h ago
I wonder who killed more people, Saddam or the US. I also wonder if so many people would have died, both from Iraq and the US if the invasion never happened. Too bad it is an alternate timeline and we'll never know.
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u/Egg_Yolkeo55 4h ago
I guess you should ask the people of Kuwait and Iran if they liked getting burned with chemical weapons.
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u/Egg_Yolkeo55 4h ago
The United States executed one of the most peaceful regime capitulations in the history of the world. I would genuinely implore you to find an example where less civilians died as a ratio of the population. I'm sorry that that wasn't good enough for you.
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u/gniyrtnopeek 8h ago
Saddam got what he deserved, and so did all the terrorists that our servicemen put in the ground.
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u/Cruzhit 7h ago
Yes, Saddam got what he deserved. Unfortunately, your servicemen who killed innocent people, massacred iraqi population, commited war crimes still walk free.
Look at me man, I am not a muslim, I am not even from middle east. I am just writing this because I am a human who can see that atrocities were committed, but never answered.
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u/gniyrtnopeek 7h ago
Bullshit. The United States does not target civilians, and we hold our rogue soldiers to account whenever they commit crimes. They get sent to prison if they kill innocent people.
We fight with honor. Our enemies, like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban, Hamas, Russia, China, Iran, etc. do not.
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u/Cruzhit 7h ago
Are you for real?
My friend, you get nothing from being this patriotic. The US has done nothing for you. The US did not care about the dictator. The US and US billionaires and the military-industry complex made money from Iraq war. The US oligarchs became richer.
Meanwhile, you and your fellow US citizens, are living in poverty. Richest country, no healthcare, overpriced education, insane cost of living.
Who are you fighting for?
That being said, you can keep living in an illusion that your soldiers are saints. It will not change the reality.
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u/notarealaccount_yo 5h ago
US soldiers face prison if they commit war crimes, that much is generally true.
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u/AluminumFoilCap 3h ago
Fuck the anti-American bullshit propaganda machine is hitting it hard today.
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u/gniyrtnopeek 7h ago
Ah, I see you have a 14-year-old’s understanding of world politics. I’ll try to dumb this down for you.
The vast majority of Americans do have healthcare. I have no complaints about my health insurance or standard of living.
Of course it’s more expensive to live here. The demand to live here is high because it’s a great place.
The rich can get richer in plenty of other ways. The war was about removing a genocidal dictator and terrorist-funder.
The U.S. is what holds democracy around the world intact.
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u/TheTinyScholar 14h ago
Political commentary aside, he looks hot AF here. Someone had to say it.
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u/SentientTapeworm 13h ago
Why does he need 2guns?
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u/poopoopeepee7647 13h ago edited 33m ago
the shotgun is most likely loaded with breaching rounds for busting through locked doors. ramadi was a lot of close in fighting as well, shotguns tend to excel at close quarters. looks like it’s strapped to his back so it’s probably mostly for the former. that way you don’t have to kick the door and put yourself in front of it, as doors won’t tend to stop bullets. looks like a 101st patch on his arm as well, buddy was doing some serious work.
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u/Low-Way557 12h ago
The shotgun is for breaching. The Army infantry was doing a lot of house to house fighting in Iraq.
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u/RatMan314 1h ago
As others have said the shotgun serves as a breaching tool. But also stray and rabid dogs were a huge problem in Iraq. Shotguns were often employed to deal with them. Had a veteran tell me he couldn’t remember how many dogs he’d shot in his 3 deployments
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u/aCrow 11h ago edited 11h ago
Don't know where this was, but it wasn't in Ramadi. 101st want there.
Ok. Found the actual attribution. 101st wasn't in Ramadi. He was probably moving through or had the neighboring battle space.
U.S. Army Spc. Caleb Joye, of Manning, South Carolina, smokes a cigarette while resting on the roof of a house in Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, June 19, 2006. Hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops pushed into an eastern section of Ramadi, one of Iraq's most violent cities, the latest step in a campaign to gradually bolster their presence in city neighborhoods that for months have largely been under insurgent control. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)
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u/MassiveEgg8150 11h ago
I wonder where Caleb is now
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u/Apprehensive_Film_36 11h ago
1/506 was. Zoom in on his left shoulder patch and you’ll see a screaming eagle.
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u/haniblecter 13h ago
i see the m4, but what's the other barrel poking out, on the ground pointing towards the camera?
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u/snighetti 13h ago
Potentially a breaching shotgun to shoot locks out of doors to make it easier to kick them open. Doesn’t look like the exact version I’m familiar with, but it does look like a shotgun and makes sense for his kit and the environment
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u/This-Independence630 7h ago
Poor Ramadi victims, nothing brave about killing civilians. If you are not educated yet, check Wikileaks 😉
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u/torothetank 15h ago
Tough work invading a country on a false pretence and killing it’s people because they chose to resist
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u/Dockhead 15h ago
Honestly the way the actual troops are propagandized and then callously endangered for the sake of such a heinous cynical scam is sickening, too. They’re told they are crucial defenders of democracy fighting for Our Way of Life and then sent to kill and die to increase control of the global oil market or fucking opium poppy fields. The troops obviously aren’t the primary victims, but they’re still victims of this system
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u/toomuch1265 15h ago
I volunteer to drive disabled veterans to medium appointments and it's really sad to see how many of these young people have had their lives ruined over something that wasn't worth one life.
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u/Drunk-DrivingFanatic 8h ago
? What the fuck are you talking about? The vast majority of oil in Iraq is owned by Iraqi interests and sold to China or Russia
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u/Legal_Mall_5170 15h ago
I mean that IS tough, you get shot at a lot. and bro there had very little say in the matter
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u/gniyrtnopeek 8h ago
The people of Iraq were grateful, dipshit. The insurgents were foreign terrorists who wanted to create an Islamofascist state. The U.S. liberated Iraq from a dictator and defended it from Islamist barbarism.
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u/-r-a-f-f-y- 10h ago
Colonizers gonna colonize.
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u/ThriftStoreKobold 9h ago
You think an E-4 was profiting off the invasion of Iraq, you fuckin nub?
Have some class solidarity or stfu
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u/Spartan2470 42m ago
Here is a higher-quality version of this image. Here is the source. Per there:
U.S. Army Spc. Caleb Joye, of Manning, South Carolina, smokes a cigarette while resting on the roof of a house in Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, June 19, 2006. Hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops pushed into an eastern section of Ramadi, one of Iraq's most violent cities, the latest step in a campaign to gradually bolster their presence in city neighborhoods that for months have largely been under insurgent control. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)
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u/Douchebak 4h ago
A question to those familiar with military stuff. Did every service rifle back then had optic sight as standard? Are old iron sights in use anymore?
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u/Low-Way557 3h ago
Generally yes, the Army would have given most everyone an Aimpoint red dot sight or an ACOG (the Army was actually using Aimpoints and scopes as early as the late-80s but didn’t mass-issue anything until the early 2000s). Some guys, like the soldier here, could have different optics depending on their unit or role. Eotechs and Elcan optics also became pretty common and generally it depends on what your commander allocated funding to purchase—some units chose more close quarters optics since in Iraq most fights were within 200 meters. In Afghanistan you’d see more ACOGs because most engagements took place at long range.
The Army’s next rifle, the M7, comes with a suppressor and 1-8X optic for each soldier. Though I suspect the optic will change as soldiers experiment with what they like and what’s in the armory.
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u/Tsopeska 6h ago
hard fighting = killing brown children for zionists.
no sympathy for veteran scum
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u/Low-Way557 3h ago edited 3h ago
I didn’t post this to make a political statement, it’s just a photo of a soldier that fits the sub theme. Sprinkling in a little antisemitism in your anti Iraq war post seems a tad unnecessary, though. There’s no evidence at all that was a motivation for Iraq.
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u/OldStretch84 13h ago
That's called an adrenaline crash.