12 Heroic U.S. Military Chaplains you should know

We appreciate everyone's input! Military chaplains are classified as non-combatants, but they still put their lives on the line to serve their country and its military members—and often civilians and enemy soldiers, too. Many went above and beyond the call of duty, and their stories should be remembered.

. Joseph T. O'Callahan

Father Joseph O'Callahan was not only a priest, but a math and physics professor. He joined the Naval Reserve Chaplain Corps in 1940 and served in various combat and non-combat locations. O'Callahan was aboard the USS Franklin near Japan on March 2, 1945, when a Japanese pilot dropped two bombs on the ship, killing, injuring, or blowing overboard around 1,000 men instantly. O'Callahan immediately went to work to rescue those who were injured or trapped, put out fires, and direct survivors to wet down ammunition to prevent further explosions. He also administered Last Rites to those who did not survive. O'Callahan and the crew members who stayed aboard spent three days working to put out fires, evacuate the wounded, offload dangerous ordnance, and keep the ship afloat. His leadership and encouragement kept the other crew members going. For his service aboard the USS Franklin, O'Callahan was awarded the Medal of Honor. He remained in the Naval Reserve after the war, retiring in 1953 with the rank of Captain.

2. George S. Rentz

Rev. George S. Rentz was a Presyterian minister who served as a Navy chaplain during both World Wars. He was assigned to the USS Houston in 1940. Rentz served tirelessly during the Battle of Makassar Strait when the ship was attacked in February of 1942. Another attack by the Japanese sunk the Houston on March 1, 1942. Hanging onto an overcrowded piece of floating material, Rentz tried to relinquish his life jacket to a younger sailor, but no one wanted to take it. He ordered Seaman First Class Walter L. Beeson to take the life jacket, then Rentz prayed and quietly abandoned the float and disappeared before the other men knew what he was doing. He was one year away from retirement. Rentz was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, and the frigate USS Rentz was named in his honor.

3-6. The Four Chaplains

The U.S.A.T. Dorchester was an Army transport ship that was carrying 902 people, both military and civilian, from Newfoundland to Greenland in February of 1943. Four of those were Army chaplains of various faiths on their way to European theater assignments. There were also German U-boats in the water, and three Coast Guard ships assigned to protect the Dorchester. A German torpedo hit the ship, killed dozens of men, and knocked out all communications. The ship sank in 20 minutes. That's when the four chaplains went to work.

They were Methodist minister George L. Fox, Jewish rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Dutch Reformed minister Clark V. Poling, and Catholic priest John P. Washington, all with the rank of lieutenant. Each immediately went to tend the wounded, rescue those trapped, encourage the frightened, and pray for them all. The evacuation was chaotic; although the escort ships moved in, many men jumped into lifeboats or rafts. The chaplains all helped hand out life vests, but there weren't enough of them. When the supply ran out, each chaplain took off his vest and gave it to another man. As the overcrowded lifeboats moved away from the sinking ship, witnesses saw the four chaplains with their arms linked, saying prayers as the Dorchester went down into the icy water.

Reverend George L. Fox had already served in World War I as a medic, even though he had to lie about his age to sign up. For his service in Europe with the ambulance corps, he was awarded the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and the French Croix de Guerre. After the war, he went home to finish high school, then college, and became a Methodist minister in 1934. He rejoined the military as a chaplain in 1942. His son, Wyatt, also signed up with the Marine Corps.

Rabbi Alexander D. Goode was the son of a rabbi and became one himself after graduating from college. He went on to earn a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Goode also founded a mixed-race, mixed-faith Boy Scout Troop. He was turned down by the Navy, but then entered the Army as a chaplain in 1942.
Reverend Clark V. Poling was the son of an Evangelical minister who became a Baptist minister. Poling was ordained in the Reformed Church in America in 1936. He joined the Army soon after the U.S. entered World War II. Shortly after Poling died in the Dorchester incident, his wife gave birth to their second child.
Father John P. Washington felt called to the priesthood at an early age. He sang in the choir and served as altar boy before completing his education. He was ordained in 1935. Washington was appointed to serve in the military shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Most of the Dorchester crew and passengers died of hypothermia in the cold water. There were 230 survivors. The Four Chaplains were all awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. Since the four men were not eligible for the Medal of Honor under its strict requirements at the time, a new medal called the Chaplain's Medal for Heroism was introduced in 1960 and awarded to the Four Chaplains in 1961. They are the only recipients of the award to date. The Four Chaplains story is commemorated in foundations and organizations, chapels and sanctuaries, and various memorials such as scholarships, parks, sculptures, shrines, stamps, and stained glass, to illustrate how different faiths can work together for the greater good.

7. Herman G. Felhoelter

Father Herman Felhoelter was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1913 and was ordained in 1939. He served as an Army chaplain in World War II and received a Bronze Star for service under fire. After that war, Felhoelter became an assistant pastor in Cincinnati, but was re-commissioned in 1948. During the Battle of Taejon in July of 1950, North Korean troops cut off a supply line road, preventing evacuation of wounded U.S. troops. A group from the 19th Infantry tried to carry them over the hills, but became exhausted by the rough terrain and put down the litters of those who could not walk. One medic, Captain Linton J. Buttrey, and chaplain Felhoelter stayed behind with the wounded men. Both were unarmed, and both men wore the insignias of their vocations, clearly indicating they were non-combatants. A North Korean patrol approached them, and Felhoelter ordered Buttrey to flee. He did, but was shot in the ankle while running. The chaplain continued to give last rites to the wounded. The enemy patrol shot Felhoelter in the head, then proceeded to kill all thirty wounded men. The attack was witnessed from hills some distance away through binoculars by other members of the 19th Infantry. Felhoelter was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. He would have turned 37 years old the next day. Felhoelter became the first of several military chaplains to lose their lives in the Korean conflict.

8. Emil Kapaun

Father Emil Kapaun was ordained in 1940 and served as an Army chaplain from 1944 to 1946 in Burma and India. He rejoined the Army in 1948 and was sent to Korea in 1950. Kapaun worked the battlefields, retrieving the wounded and the dead, often under fire, and earned the Bronze Star. On November 1, his dwindling unit was captured and marched north to a P.O.W. camp near the Chinese border. There, Kapaun earned the nickname "the Good Thief" by sneaking food supplies from their captors and giving it to starving prisoners. He also cared for sick compatriots, led Mass, heard confessions, and shared his rations with those who were weaker. But Kapaun himself became ill under camp conditions, suffering from malnutrition and a seriously inflamed blood clot. He was given no medical treatment, and after several weeks of suffering, Kaplaun died of pneumonia on May 23, 1951. Kapaun was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and other military decorations.

Decades later, the story of Kapaun's service became more widely recognized. The Catholic Church declared Kapaun a Servant of God in 1993, which is a step that signals a person is being investigated for possible sainthood. In 2000, a campaign began to award Kapaun the Medal of Honor. The case for Kapaun's sainthood was sent to the Vatican for consideration in the summer of 2011.

9. Charles J. Watters

Father Charles Watters was ordained in 1953, became a chaplain in the the New Jersey Air National Guard in 1962, and entered the Army in 1964. After his first year-long tour of Vietnam, during which he was awarded the Air Medal and a Bronze Star, he re-upped for another tour. On November 19, 1967, Watters was in the middle of the battle for Hill 875 at Dak To. He spent hours retrieving the wounded and giving last rites to the dead while exposing himself to heavy fire. Watters saved many wounded men, but was a victim of a bomb and died that day. Watters was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

10. Vincent R. Capodanno

Father Vincent R. Capodanno, nicknamed "the Grunt Padre," was a missionary to Taiwan and Hong Kong from 1958 until 1965, when he was commissioned as a chaplain in the Navy. He was assigned to Vietnam in 1966, where Capodanno served with the First Marine Division. On September 4, 1967, around 500 U.S. Marines were battling 2,500 North Vietnamese in the Que Son Valley. Capodanno ventured into the battlefield to retrieve the wounded and give Last Rites. He was shot in the right hand, but refused evacuation. Instead, a corpsman wrapped up his shattered hand. On another foray, his left arm was shredded by a mortar blast. Yet he still refused to leave the battlefield. Capodanno ventured ahead to give Last Rites and saw a Marine shot in the leg who couldn't move. The chaplain used his own body to shield the wounded man and was fatally shot. Capodanno was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor among a list of other medals. In 2006, Father Capodanno was declared a Servant of God and an inquiry was opened for the cause of canonization.

11. Charles Liteky

Father Angelo J. Liteky was a Catholic priest who joined the Army and was sent to Vietnam. In heavy fighting in Bien Hoa province on December 6, 1967, he personally carried twenty wounded men from the battlefront, despite being wounded himself. Liteky encountered one wounded man too heavy to carry, so he laid down, pulled the man onto his chest, and crawled back to safety. For his bravery, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

After the war, Liteky remained in the news. He left the priesthood in 1975 and married a former nun in 1983. He also changed his name to Charles Liteky and became an antiwar protestor. In 1986, Liteky renounced his Medal of Honor, leaving it at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In 2000, he was sent to prison for a year for protesting the activities of the School of the Americas. Liteky continued a life of civil disobedience with his opposition to the Iraq War in 2003.

12. Henry Timothy Vakoc

Father Tim Vakoc became an Army chaplain in 1996 and served in Germany and Bosnia before being sent to Iraq in 2003. He traveled widely in Iraq, as he was committed to celebrating mass for all military personnel wherever they were. On May 29, 2004, as he was returning to Mosul from a mass in the field, he was severely injured by a roadside bomb. The date was also the 12th anniversary of his ordination. Vakoc was evacuated to Baghdad, then to Germany, then to Walter Reed Hospital in the U.S. He was paralyzed and sustained brain damage. A Purple Heart was expedited and awarded to Vakoc. The priest was in a coma for six months and was transferred to an assisted living care facility, where he began to show signs of improvement in 2005. Vakoc was given a computer which he used for limited communication, and even began to speak in 2007. Father Vakoc died on June 20th, 2009. In addition to the Purple Heart, Vakoc was awarded the Bronze Star and the Combat Action Badge.

10 FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCE BEFORE TOMMORROW

1. In the early spring 2018, tens of thousands of Palestinians led violent uprisings against Israeli security infrastructures and the IDF. As Hamas in Gaza used its civilians as human shields, IDF planes dropped leaflets along the Gaza border warning Palestinian civilians not to approach the security fence or participate in any terrorist activities. While the IDF understands that warning civilians of upcoming retaliations of terrorist personnel and infrastructure could cause operational disadvantages, the IDF has yet again shown its true colors as the most moral army, attempting to minimize collateral damage within the Gazan population.
2. In August 2018, the Israeli Air Force appointed the first female commander of an IAF squadron. The 34 year-old was promoted to a Lieutenant Colonel after serving for 15 years in the IAF. This promotion came in the context of other important promotions for women serving in the IDF, including the army’s first four female tank commanders.
3. There are currently 176,500 active soldiers serving in the IDF.
4. Israel’s Airforce is ranked No. 1 in the world due to its space assets, advanced fighter jets, high-tech armed drones and nuclear weapons. Israeli’s military is ranked No. 1 in the Middle East.
5. The IDF is one of the world’s most informal and least hierarchical armies. Its officers do not come from academies, but rather rise through the ranks solely on the basis of their leadership and command capabilities. Officers often sleep and eat with their soldiers and the army makes scant use of saluting and parades.
6. The IDF requires conscription, meaning that every 18 year old—male and female—is required to serve. Men must serve for three years and women for two. Released soldiers continue serving as reservists into their early 50s, contributing up to over a month’s worth of service each year, both training and active service.
7. Women typically do not serve in combat roles, though there are female pilots and infantry units that allow women. According to the IDF, 535 female Israeli soldiers were been killed in combat operations between 1962-2016 (the number killed before 1962 is unknown). Women can avoid conscription through a religious exemption, in which more than third of Israeli women do.
8. Israel is the only country in the world that requires the deaf and hearing impaired to serve in the military. Sign language interpreters are provided during training and many of them serve in noncombat capacities such as mappers, office work, etc.
9. Since 2006, the IDF has fought in four major engagements, including the Second Lebanon War.
10. IDF troops do not deploy; they protect Israel, its borders and its people.The IDF have their own version of the Navy SEALs called Shayetet 13. The unit is one of the most secretive in the Israeli military and the details of many missions and the identities of active operatives are highly classified. The unit’s motto is, “As the bat emerges from the darkness, As the blade cuts through with silence, As the grenade smashes in rage.” The unit trains extensively in Krav Maga and all manner of weapons. The unit is referred to by others in the military as the “people of silence.”

SOURCE: compiled by this blog

THE ORIGIN OF THE TALIBANS

The Taliban—from the Arabic word for "student,"  Talib—are fundamentalist Sunni Muslims, mostly from Afghanistan’s Pashtun tribes. The Taliban dominates large swaths of Afghanistan and a large part of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, semi-autonomous tribal lands along the Afghan-Pakistan border that serve as training grounds for terrorists.

The Taliban seek to establish a puritanical caliphate that neither recognizes nor tolerates forms of Islam divergent from their own. They scorn democracy or any secular or pluralistic political process as an offense against Islam. The Taliban’s Islam, however, a close kin of Saudi Arabian Wahhabism, is far more perversion than interpretation. The Taliban’s version of Sharia, or Islamic law, is historically inaccurate, contradictory, self-serving and fundamentally deviant from prevailing interpretations of Islamic law and practice.

Origins

There was no such thing as the Taliban until Afghanistan’s civil war in the wake of the Soviet Union's troop withdrawal in 1989 after a decade-long occupation. But by the time their last troops withdrew in February of that year, they’d left a nation in social and economic shards, 1.5 million dead, millions of refugees and orphans in Iran and Pakistan, and a gaping political vacuum that warlords attempted to fill. Afghan mujahideen warlords replaced their war with the Soviets with a civil war.

Thousands of Afghan orphans grew up never knowing Afghanistan or their parents, especially their mothers. They were schooled in Pakistan’s madrassas, religious schools that, in this case, were encouraged and financed by Pakistani and Saudi authorities to develop militantly inclined Islamists. Pakistan nurtured that corps of militants as proxy fighters in Pakistan’s ongoing conflict over Muslim-dominated (and disputed) Kashmir. But Pakistan consciously intended to use the madrassas’ militants as leverage in its attempt to control Afghanistan as well.

As Jeri Laber of Human Rights Watch wrote in the New York Review of Books of the origins of the Taliban in refugee camps (recalling an article he’d written in 1986):

Hundreds of thousands of youths, who knew nothing of life but the bombings that destroyed their homes and drove them to seek refuge over the border, were being raised to hate and to fight, “in the spirit of Jihad,” a “holy war” that would restore Afghanistan to its people. “New kinds of Afghans are being born in the struggle,” I reported. “Caught in the midst of a grownups’ war, the young Afghans are under intense political pressure from one side or another, almost from birth." [...] The children that I interviewed and wrote about in 1986 are now young adults. Many are now with the Taliban.

Mullah Omar and the Taliban's Rise in Afghanistan

As civil war was ravaging Afghanistan, Afghans were desperate for a stabilizing counterforce that would put an end to the violence.

The Taliban’s most original aims were, as Ahmed Rashid, the Pakistani journalist and author of "Taliban" (2000), wrote, to “restore peace, disarm the population, enforce Sharia law and defend the integrity and Islamic character of Afghanistan."

As most of them were part-time or full-time students at madrassas, the name they chose for themselves was natural. A Talib is one who seeks knowledge, compared to the mullah who is one who gives knowledge. By choosing such a name, the Taliban (plural of Talib) distanced themselves from the party politics of the mujahideen and signaled that they were a movement for cleansing society rather than a party trying to grab power.​

For their leader in Afghanistan, the Taliban turned to Mullah Mohammed Omar, an itinerant preacher likely born in 1959 in Nodeh village near Kandahar, in southeastern Afghanistan. He had neither tribe nor religious pedigree. He had fought the Soviets and been wounded four times, including once in the eye. His reputation was that of a pious ascetic.

Omar's reputation grew when he ordered a group of Taliban militants to arrest a warlord who had captured two teenage girls and raped them. The 30 Talibs, with just 16 rifles between them—or so goes the story, one of many near-mythical accounts that have grown around Omar’s history—attacked the commander’s base, freed the girls and hanged the commander by their favorite means: from the barrel of a tank, in full view, as an example of Taliban justice.

The Taliban’s reputation grew through similar feats.

Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's Intelligence Services and the Taliban

Religious indoctrination in Pakistan’s madrassas and Omar’s campaigns against rapists alone were not the light that lit the Taliban fuse. The Pakistani intelligence services, known as the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI); the Pakistani military; and Benazir Bhutto, who was prime minister of Pakistan during the Taliban’s most politically and militarily formative years (1993-96), all saw in the Taliban a proxy army they could manipulate to Pakistan’s ends.

In 1994, Bhutto’s government appointed the Taliban as protector of Pakistani convoys through Afghanistan. Controlling trade routes and the lucrative windfalls those routes provide in Afghanistan is a major source of lucre and power. The Taliban proved uniquely effective, swiftly defeating other warlords and conquering major Afghan cities.

Beginning in 1994, the Taliban rose to power and established their brutal, totalitarian rule over 90 percent of the country, in part by leading a genocidal campaign against Afghanistan’s Shiite, or Hazara.

The Taliban and the Clinton Administration

Following Pakistan’s lead, then-President Bill Clinton's administration initially supported the Taliban’s rise. Clinton’s judgment was clouded by the question that has often led American policy astray in the region: Who can best check Iran’s influence? In the 1980s, then-President Ronald Reagan's administration armed and financed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein under the assumption that a totalitarian Iraq was more acceptable than an unbridled, Islamic Iran. The policy backfired in the form of two wars.

In the 1980s, the Reagan administration also funded the mujahideen in Afghanistan as well as their Islamist supporters in Pakistan. That blowback took the form of al-Qaeda. As the Soviets withdrew and the cold war ended, American support for Afghan mujahideen stopped abruptly, but military and diplomatic support for Afghanistan did not. Under the influence of Benazir Bhutto, the Clinton administration voiced itself willing to open a dialogue with the Taliban in the mid-1990s, especially as the Taliban was the only force in Afghanistan capable of guaranteeing another American interest in the region—potential oil pipelines.

On Sept. 27, 1996, Glyn Davies, a US State Department spokesman, expressed hope that the Taliban “will move quickly to restore order and security and to form a representative interim government that can begin the process of reconciliation nationwide.” Davies called the Taliban’s execution of former Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah merely “regrettable,” and said the United States would send diplomats to Afghanistan to meet with the Taliban, potentially to re-establishing full diplomatic ties. The Clinton administration’s flirtation with the Taliban did not last, however, as Madeleine Albright, incensed by the Taliban’s treatment of women, among other regressive measures, halted it when she became the US secretary of state in January 1997.

The Taliban's Repressions and Regressions: A War on Women

The Taliban's long lists of edicts and decrees took an especially misogynistic view of women. Schools for girls were closed. Women were forbidden to work or leave their homes without verifiable permission. Wearing non-Islamic dress was forbidden. Wearing makeup and sporting Western products like purses or shoes was forbidden. Music, dancing, cinemas, and all nonreligious broadcasting and entertainment were banned. Lawbreakers were beaten, flogged, shot or beheaded.

In 1994, Osama bin Laden moved to Kandahar as a guest of Mullah Omar. On Aug. 23, 1996, bin Laden declared war on the United States and exerted increasing influence on Omar, helping to fund the Taliban’s offensives against other warlords in the north of the country. That lavish financial support made it impossible for Mullah Omar not to protect bin Laden when Saudi Arabia, then the United States, pressured the Taliban to extradite bin Laden. The fates and ideology of al-Qaeda and the Taliban became intertwined.

At the height of their power, in March 2001, the Taliban demolished two enormous, centuries-old Buddha statues in Bamiyan, an act that showed to the world in ways that the Taliban’s wanton massacres and oppression should have much earlier the ruthless, distorted Puritanism of the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam.

The Taliban's 2001 Downfall

The Taliban was overthrown in the 2001 American-backed invasion of Afghanistan, shortly after bin Laden and al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The Taliban were never completely defeated, however. They retreated and regrouped, especially in Pakistan, and today hold much of southern and western Afghanistan. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 in a raid by US Navy Seals in his hideout in Pakistan after a nearly decade-long manhunt. The Afghan government claimed that Mullah Omar died in a hospital in Karachi in 2013. 

Today, the Taliban claim senior religious cleric Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader. They released a letter in January 2017 to newly elected US President Donald Trump to withdraw all remaining US forces from Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban (known as the TTP, the same group that almost succeeded in blowing up an SUV full of explosives in Times Square in 2010) is just as powerful. They are virtually immune from Pakistani law and authority; they continue to strategize against the NATO-American presence in Afghanistan and against Pakistan’s secular rulers; and they are tactically directing attacks elsewhere in the world. ​

source:thoughtco

ORIGIN OF THE MUJAHIDEENS IN BRIEF

In the 1970s, a new group of fighters arose in Afghanistan. They called themselves mujahideen, a word applied initially to Afghan fighters who opposed the push of the British Raj into Afghanistan in the 19th century. But who were these 20th-century mujahideen?

The word "mujahideen" comes from the same Arabic root as jihad, which means "struggle." Thus, a mujahid is someone who struggles or someone who fights. In the context of Afghanistan during the late 20th century, the mujahideen were Islamic warriors defending their country from the Soviet Union, which invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and fought a bloody war there for a decade.

Who Were the Mujahideen?

Afghanistan's mujahideen were an exceptionally diverse lot, including ethnic Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and others. Some were Shi'a Muslims, sponsored by Iran, while most factions were made up of Sunni Muslims. In addition to the Afghan fighters, Muslims from other countries volunteered to join the mujahideen ranks. Much smaller numbers of Arabs (including Osama bin Laden), fighters from Chechnya, and others rushed to the aid of Afghanistan. After all, the Soviet Union was officially an atheist nation, inimical to Islam, and the Chechens had their own anti-Soviet grievances.

The mujahideen arose out of local militias, led by regional warlords, who independently took up arms all across Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invasion. Coordination among the different mujahideen factions was severely limited by mountainous terrain, linguistic differences, and traditional rivalries among different ethnic groups.

As the Soviet occupation dragged on, the Afghan resistance became increasingly united in its opposition. By 1985, the majority of the mujahideen were fighting as part of a broad alliance known as the Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen. This alliance was made up of troops from the armies of seven major warlords, so it was also known as the Seven Party Mujahideen Alliance or the Peshawar Seven.

The most famous (and likely most effective) of the mujahideen commanders was Ahmed Shah Massoud, known as the "Lion of the Panjshir."

 His troops fought under the banner of the Jamiat-i-Islami, one of the Peshawar Seven factions led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, who would later become the 10th President of Afghanistan. Massoud was a strategic and tactical genius, and his mujahideen were a crucial part of the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union during the 1980s.

The Soviet-Afghan War

For a variety of reasons, foreign governments also supported the mujahideen in the war against the Soviets. The United States had been engaged in detente with the Soviets, but their expansionist move into Afghanistan angered President Jimmy Carter, and the U.S. would go on to supply money and arms to the mujahideen through intermediaries in Pakistan for the duration of the conflict. (The U.S. was still smarting from its loss in the Vietnam War, so the country did not send in any combat troops.) The People's Republic of China also supported the mujahideen, as did Saudi Arabia.

The Afghan mujahideen deserve the lion's share of the credit for their victory over the Red Army. Armed with their knowledge of the mountainous terrain, their tenacity, and their sheer unwillingness to allow a foreign army to overrun Afghanistan, small bands of often ill-equipped mujahideen fought one of the world's superpowers to a draw. In 1989, the Soviets were forced to withdraw in disgrace, having lost 15,000 troops.

For the Soviets, it was a very costly mistake. Some historians cite the expense and discontent over the Afghan War as a major factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union several years later. For Afghanistan, it was also a bittersweet victory; more than 1 million Afghans were killed, and the war threw the country into a state of political chaos that eventually allowed the fundamentalist Taliban to take power in Kabul.

Source: thoughtco

The 5 Deadliest Terrorist Groups on the Planet

Here is a list of the five deadliest terrorist groups that are operating today, and the five that are no doubt at the top of Washington’s radar as at 2014:



1.The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant :

It takes a special kind of terrorist organization to force the world’s most powerful and professional military into action halfway around the globe. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS or simply the Islamic State) is exactly this type of organization: strong enough to rout several divisions of a national army, and rich enough to sustain their operations at an impressive pace.


Estimated by the Central Intelligence Agency to have a size of 31,000 fighters, ISIL has single-handedly swept across an area of the Middle East roughly the size of Belgium. The swift and easy capture of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, by several thousand ISIL fighters in June 2014 had the effect of not only embarrassing the Iraqi government in the eyes of its people, but revealing how poorly led and pathetic the Iraqi security forces had become. Absent President Barack Obama’s decision to authorize targeted airstrikes against ISIL positions in early August, there was a very real possibility that several more divisions of the Iraqi army could have collapsed.

A major difference between ISIL and the litany of other Islamist terrorist organizations competing for fundraising and recruits is that the former is succeeding in a task that not even Al Qaeda could accomplish: capturing territory, holding that territory and declaring an Islamic caliphate in the very heart of the Arab world. And ISIL is doing it in the most brutal way imaginable: rounding up and executing anyone who shows the slightest bit of resistance to its domination. At least four cases of mass killings by ISIL terrorists have been documented, including the execution of 250 Syrian troops in August after the group captured the al-Tabqa air base. Several weeks ago, over 200 Iraqi tribesmen were massacred west of Ramadi in what can only be described as an attempt by ISIL to extinguish any competitor, however passive, who dares to rise up and challenge its authority.

Combined with a Treasury Department study that assesses ISIL’s crude oil revenue at a value of $1 million per day, it’s safe to say that the United States and the coalition it has assembled has a lot of work ahead of them.

Boko Haram :The jihadist group in northeastern Nigeria catapulted to the world’s attention when a boarding school in the Nigerian border town of Chibok was raided in the middle of the night. Around 300 Nigerian schoolgirls were taken captive by Boko Haram militants and threatened with forced marriage and forced conversion.
Yet Boko Haram has been menacing Nigeria’s northern communities for years. Public reports state that the organization was founded in 2002, but it’s activities only reached global spotlight in 2009, when Boko Haram’s new leader, Abubakr Shekau, launched what can only be described as an insurgency against the Nigerian government using nothing but terrorist tactics.
Boko Haram has razed entire villages to the ground, its inhabitants often killed with bullets to the head or burned alive. The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that at least 6,742 people have been killed as a result of Boko Haram’s violence since May 2011—although the murky nature of violence in Nigeria and multiple claims of responsibility guarantee that this is an incredibly conservative figure. No target is off limits for Boko Haram either; last Monday, over fifty schoolchildren were killed in a suicide bombingthat many speculate was a Boko Haram member. This wouldn’t be all that surprising, given the group’s history of destroying schools and burning students alive in their dormitories.

What’s perhaps more discouraging than the actual violence is the inept and incompetent way that the Nigerian government has chosen to fight Boko Haram. The three northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa have been locked down and under a state of emergency since May 2013, which has essentially allowed the Nigerian army to use the kinds of tactics that would otherwise be prohibited by international humanitarian law. Extrajudicial killings of suspected Boko Haram sympathizers, many of whom are innocent civilians, are thru the roof, and the abuses have gotten so out of control that the United States has suspended some military equipment to the army.

3. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force :

The covert, external operations wing of the elite Revolutionary Guard is not designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States government (members of Congress have been trying to designate the Quds Force through legislation ), but this highly-secretive branch of the Islamic Republic is nonetheless incredibly effective at what it does: connect with, maintain and support terrorist groups in the region that will enhance Iran’s regional posture and keep its enemies off balance. And that is why the Quds Force is so dangerous.

Led by its mysterious commander, Qassem Suleimani (dubbed “ The Shadow Commander ” by the New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins), the Quds Force is one of the most valuable assets that Iran possesses in its mission to expand its presence in the Arab Middle East and create the kind of leverage that allows Tehran to dictate the terms of the region’s ongoing conflicts. Lebanese Hezbollah, Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad are all beholden to the Iranians in one way or another, thanks in large part to the money, arms shipments and battlefield advise that the Quds Force provides. In October 2007, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the IRGC-QF as a “ specially designated global terrorist entity ” for its support to a variety of terrorist organizations, including, but not limited to, a yearly donation to Hezbollah of $100-200 million.

The role of the IRGC-QF has only grown in importance. President Bashar al-Assad and his overstretched and tired Syrian army have the Quds Force to thank for pulling his regime away from the brink of implosion. It’s difficult to believe that Lebanese Hezbollah was not pushed by the Quds Force to deploy inside of Syria on behalf of the Assad regime, and it’s equally unlikely that Syria could have established a pro-government militia so effectively on its own. Behind it all, Qassem Suleimani is pulling the strings. As a former CIA operative told the New Yorker , “Suleimani is the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today, and no one’s ever heard of him.”

4. Haqqani Network :

Although the Haqqani network was only designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in the fall of 2012, the organization has been and remains the most lethal strain of the anti-U.S., anti-ISAF insurgency in Afghanistan. Whenever a high-profile, coordinated terrorist attack occurs in the Afghan capital, Kabul, those watching Afghanistan almost immediately pin the blame on the Haqqanis—a testament not only to its propensity for daring assaults, but its ability to pull them off, despite a heavy Afghan security presence.



It’s not the attacks, however, that make this strand of the wider Taliban insurgency dangerous. Rather, it’s the Haqqanis’ deep tribal relationships in eastern Afghanistan and willingness to work with, facilitate and host other terrorist organizations that strike fear into the hearts of Afghans and Pakistanis alike. Al Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Pakistani Taliban, the Turkistan Islamic Party and the Quetta Shura Taliban all rely on the Haqqanis for access across the Afghan-Pakistani border or for tactical advice on how to conduct the most effective operations against Afghan and coalition troops. The Combatting Counterterrorism Center at West Point says it best in a lengthy and comprehensive report about the organization:



The Haqqanis have resources, tribal connections, local support, land, manpower and financing that will persist long after U.S. and NATO combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of 2016. As the Pentagon acknowledged in its own report to Congress on the state of the Afghan conflict, “[t]hey [the Haqqani network] will likely remain the most significant threat to coalition forces in the post-2014 noncombat mission, especially if they are not denied sanctuary in Pakistan.”


5. Kataib Hezbollah :

Large groups of men wearing baklavas raid a house in the dead of night, take several young men into custody, and drag them to a field where they are tortured and executed with bullets to the head. Sounds like the menacing behavior of ISIL, right? Well, there’s another organization using the same exact tactics—wreaking destruction in Iraq and tearing at the country’s social fabric in the process. This time, it’s a Shia militia with close ties to the Iraqi government, the Iraqi army and Iran.


Kataib Hezbollah, formed in 2006 or 2007, was once known for ambushing U.S. troops during their patrols of Iraqi neighborhoods and for placing armored-piercing IED’s on the roads that U.S. Humvees would use. The killing of U.S. soldiers and the frequent rocket attacks that KH would launch directly into Baghdad’s Green Zone landed the group on the U.S. foreign terrorist organization list in 2009. “KH has threatened the lives of Iraqi politicians and civilians that support the legitimate political process in Iraq,” the State Department noted in its designation . It’s hard to argue that this band of Shia fighters has changed their behavior five years later.

In fact, due to the unpredictable collapse of the Iraqi army, Kataib Hezbollah has only grown more powerful and its name has only increased in relevance. The Iraqi government—first under former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and now under Haider al-Abadi—has come to depend upon informal Shia militias like KH for reinforcing an army that is struggling to chip away at ISIL’s territorial expansion in northern and western Iraq. Militias like KH are now the tip of the spear for the Iraqi counterattack, a fact that was demonstrated quite clearly during the capture of Amerli, when Iran-backed militia groups, Kurdish peshmerga forces and U.S. warplanes teamed up in a tactical alliance to drive ISIL from the area.




Unfortunately, with dependency comes a lack of accountability. Human Rights Watchand Amnesty International , the world’s two premier human-rights organizations, have both documented appalling cases of brutality and violence from KH and its Shia allies. Any Sunni even remotely suspected of tolerating ISIL’s presence is arrested without charge or explanation and either tortured in one of Iraq’s notorious prisons or killed on the spot. It’s not uncommon for a Sunni to be simply kidnapped and threatened with death unless their family members pay a high price for a release. All of these abuses and war crimes occur without any punishment or investigation by the Iraqi army or the government in Baghdad, perhaps fearing that KH and similar militias like Asaib ahl al-Haq will turn against the national authorities in retaliation.

If ISIL elicits shivers and fear in the heart of an Iraqi Shia, Kataib Hezbollah produces the same emotion in an Iraqi Sunni.

This article is not compiled by Allformilitary but sourced from the link below although lightly edited.

SOURCE: David R. D Petres https://nationalinterest.org

Key Lessons the Church Should Learn from the Military (a must read to all Christians)

Hi guys i created this post to wish the christian brothers a happy christmas.

lets go!!!!!

Key Lessons the Church Should Learn from the Military

1. Breathtaking Trainings: In the military, once you're marked for recruitment, you go through several screenings marked by severe trainings. 

Nobody recruits or gives you uniform or a gun until you prove fit and capable both intellectually and physically. You must drop the civilian mindset and carry the military attitude. How much pain can you take? If you don't succeed in these trainings you can't become a military man.In church however, when someone gives his life to Christ, we shout Hallelujah and let him go. We forget that at that moment he's signed up for war and needs to be equipped. He needs the shield of faith and the sword of the word to fight but he has none because we gave him none. Many new believers don't know where to read in the Bible let alone understanding it or even knowing how to pray. Satan, knowing that he's ignorant begins to buffet and entice him with his former sins.Unlike the military man who stays in camp with other cadets, the young believer is thrown right back to the ocean of worldliness and left alone without help. No wonder, many new believers never grow from infancy. Many of our new believers eventually go back to their sins though still coming to church. It is better not to win souls than win them and never disciple them

2. Uniform: a military man never jokes with his uniform. He's told that once he becomes a military man, he's no longer a civilian and should not mingle with civilian affairs. The scripture emphasize this, "No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer." (2 Timothy 2:4)In the Church however, only very few churches and believers have uniforms that differentiate them from civilians (unbelievers). The dressing, attitude, dreams and mindset of the modern day believer, the choir or usher or prayer leader in church isn't different from that of the pop star. Same dressing, same haircut or hairdo, same make-up, same way of thinking. There seems to be no difference between the Christian soldier and the unbeliever (civilian)

3. Obey the Last Order: the military trusts the boss with his life, that's why you don't argue with your commanding officer; whatever he tells you, you do. This brings decorum in the army.The church however is filled with arrogant and rebellious soldiers. When the pastor speaks you see some people whispering to their friends "he doesn't know what he's saying." when God made the ten commandments maany christians still despise it saying it is too strict or archaic so many christians violate God rules and when God speaks to them they refuse to listen." If you do that in the army, you're a piece of cake. There are too many people who know too much in church and that causes confusion

4. Save your Comrade: when a soldier is hit by a bullet, someone else quickly covers his position while another does everything to salvage his life. If it takes carrying the wounded on the shoulder and run in the midst of flying bullets, he does it without hesitation. 

You don't leave a wounded soldier in battle; every man fights and dies for each other Let's come to the Christ soldiers, when a brethren falls into sin, for example, a brother is arrested for rape or fraud, he's wounded but instead of quickly rallying around him, covering his wounds, and fighting for him through prayer and fasting, we are the first to shout "let him bear the consequence of his sin. He's a hypocrite" and so on. Even in the kingdom of darkness, they fight for each other but in our kingdom, we stab each other's back. It is in Christendom that you see a pastor criticising another in public. Every man is fighting for himself and not for others. We need to change

5. Life-Contract: when you sign up in the military, it means you've agreed to give up your life for the course. It's as simple as that. The military man always have it in mind that every battle might be his last. He's not afraid to die because he knows that's what he signed for In the Christian army, many are not even aware that signing up for Christ is agreeing to fight and die for him. Paul mentioned this when he said what shall separate us from the love of Christ? He mentioned terrible things such as tribulation, famine and death, knowing that all these things are part of the package. 

Christianity is a war against the host of darkness, not a picnic or holiday Today, many preachers tell their congregation that there is no war any more because Jesus had fought and won on the wars. Whereas Paul said, "the weapon of our warfare are not canal but mighty to the pulling down of stronghold." He also said, "for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers." The Christ soldier must be ready to give his life and everything he has for the course of the gospel. Many people never takes church or prayer seriously because they are not aware that we're at war front  the military could keep their standard till this day, nothing stops the Christ Army from not just taking a clue from the military but also holding their grounds. Our defense line has been bridged because we have become too civilian-like. We are soldiers and must continue to act like one. Jesus, our commanding officer is counting on us. We cannot afford to let him down God bless you

To soldiers out there Allformilitary wish you a wonderful Christmas

Even though you are overseas, I hope your Christmas is everything you dreamed it would be.
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From our home to you, we wish you the merriest of Christmases.
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No matter how far apart, you are always in our heart.
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Thank you for fighting for our freedom; it is truly the greatest think I can think of during this holiday season.
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Christmas is a time for making memories, and we can do that even though we are far apart.
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Christmas is a time for making memories, and we will remember
this year as the one in which you were fighting for our freedom.
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God bless you; you are truly a hero.
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Christmas is a time to honor the heroes in our lives; therefore, we honor you during this season.
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This season is one for happiness and joy; we hope you can feel that as you begin your Christmas Day.
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Thank God for you on this Christmas Day!
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How happy we truly are to have you back home with us on this
Christmas Day!
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You keep us safe from harm, and you keep our hearts full of joy. On Christmas, we thank God for all that you have done.
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Your presence is the greatest gift in the world on Christmas Day.
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Christmas is not the same without you here, but we know you are fighting for a noble cause.
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May God be with you on Christmas Day and always.
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Know that we are all thinking of you during this special time of the year.
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Know that we are all praying for you during the Christmas season.
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Truly, Christmas is a time for rejoicing and happiness.
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Remember, we are all thinking of you during this Christmas Season.
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No matter how far away we are, we will always think of you as our lucky Christmas star.
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We feel your spirit on this Christmas day, and it makes us want to laugh and play.
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Your little ones are truly thinking of you during this blessed Christmas season, and they pray for their daddy every night.

merry christmas to our readers here too. Stay safe real and strong. See you next year.

#merrychristmas in advance to all christian soldiers.