PissPig Goes To War

An American Fighter in Syria

An American Fighter in Syria

“I’m Rasid Fuad, fucking moron idiot in the YPG.”

That’s the adopted name of irony left Twitter account @PissPigGranddad, whose owner has attracted attention and followers over the past few months as he fights in Syria as part of the Kurdish militant group People’s Protection Units (YPG).

I talked to Fuad about the war and his experiences in the Middle Eastern country this week over a series of text messages.

“The YPG are a socialist force aimed to establish democratic confederalism,” Fuad explained. “I joined them because of course I am a Communist, and thus an internationalist.”

Fuad’s photos from the front and quick-hit comedic takes on the war and politics have earned him a fan base in the tens of thousands since late September. He’s a long way from home.

“I was a florist in San Francisco,” Fuad said.

When he arrived in Syria, Fuad went through military training.

“I have a pistol at home, but I’m a city rat and hadn’t fired a rifle before,” he said. “Learned in training from a French Foreign Legion deserter.”

It’s a different environment for the “city rat.”

“I’m in Rojava, the primarily Kurdish area of northern Syria,” said Fuad.

The landscape is “pretty desolate in parts,” he said. Northern Syria is cold in the winter with snow and frigid temperatures. And it smells like diesel fuel, chicken shit, and gunfire, Fuad said.

“Everywhere else [it’s] like dust or it’s just too cold to smell anything,” he said.

But he’s found time to find friends in the landscape. Fuad’s account is full of pictures of him playing with dogs, rabbits, and pigeons. He explained that the animals are everywhere because of the war.

“The animals are everywhere — most of the people are dead so there are just dogs roaming around,” Fuad said. “But we got all sorts, peacocks and pigeons and all that shit. Most taburs [platoons] keep a ton of pets with em; we even had pigeons in a tank for a bit.”

I asked Fuad about the action he’s seen so far as a YPG soldier.

“Well, the Raqqa operation began a few days after I got to the front [ed.: the operation began on November 6, for timeline], just after training.”

“I was with a heavy weapons unit at first. We had some armored cars and a few anti-aircraft weapons on the backs of trucks.”

“We pushed hard, took a lot of land really quickly, but the fight for [the town of] Tal Simman [20 miles north of Raqqa] took a couple of weeks. Relatively light fighting, mostly artillery and mines”

“After we took the town, Daesh sent a grip of suicide bombers in with the civilians behind our lines. But they’re dumbasses and barely killed anyone.”

Fuad said he’s off the battlefield for now. There’s a lull in the fighting for his tabur.

That’s time to catch up on news, like the Trump presidency. But despite the perception in US media that the current government has the world’s attention, Trump’s just not a pressing issue to most of the YPG, Fuad said.

“Some comrades don’t really know who he is, as we don’t get much news and they’ve been on the front for long, long stretches,” Fuad explained.

“But,” he added, “the ones who do think he’s a rabid dog.”

The pause in fighting is temporary. Fuad’s switching platoons and fronts and headed back to the Raqqa offensive.

“We’re gearing up for the next phase,” said Fuad. “I’m on my way to a new tabur.”

“We’ve got a long way to go. Raqqa is ISIS’ capital in Syria, of course, and by god it’s going to be a hell of a fight. Apocalyptic, I think.”

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