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Wesley Morgan

@wesleymorgan.bsky.social

6.7K followers 790 following 2.6K posts

Writing about America’s post-9/11 wars https://linktr.ee/wesleysmorgan Author of THE HARDEST PLACE https://bookshop.org/shop/Wesleymorgan https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/227894/the-hardest-place-by-wesley-morgan/ Signal wesmorgan.01

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · Feb 25

Thread of photos illustrating THE HARDEST PLACE, sorted by chapter:

If you took one of these photos, let me know! Most were shared with me by unit commanders as part of big dumps of deployment photos, but I’d love to credit the individual veterans who took them.

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · Feb 12

My Afghanistan war book THE HARDEST PLACE is approaching its four-year anniversary.

Since I’ve mostly migrated from Twitter to Bluesky, over the next few months I’m going to recreate here a long thread of photos that many readers have enjoyed scrolling through as an accompaniment to the book.

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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

ex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 13h

We're sending squad-sized elements to secure the Bass Pro Shop

Screencap of an AP article

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — National Guard troops patrolled in Tennessee’s second-largest city for the first time Friday while soldiers in Illinois were engaged only in planning and training after a judge handed a loss to the Trump administration and blocked their deployment to the Chicago area.

At least nine armed Guard members began their patrol at the Bass Pro Shops located at the Pyramid, an iconic Memphis landmark, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from historic Beale Street and FedEx Forum, where the NBA’s Grizzlies play

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 12h

Huh!

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 13h

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 13h

*She* isn’t fucking the melons, she’s talking about men (all the other members of her guerrilla band) fucking the melons

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 13h

No, but now I’m desperate to know

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 14h

*in a rural area

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 14h

Well this was a book for publication, in which he heavily self-censored sethink.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/s...

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 14h

From the group chat:

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 14h

Have been in an argument with my book club about this. I think they’re all prudes, and prudes who are ignorant of the early-modern history of prudishness, at that

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 14h

Well she’s definitely saying the melons are garbage, but she’s illustrating that by saying they’re so bad they’re only good for fucking. “Self-abuse” a standard and clear euphemism for masturbation at the time

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 14h

It’s a cross-cultural trope, I’m not making this up. Cormac McCarthy, Afghan soldiers, “Detroiters”:

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 14h

This character in “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is talking about fucking melons, right?

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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

👁🌻🦊⚙️⚓ Bob, Engineer, Pusher of Paper @navmecheng.bsky.social · 21h

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

> It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 23h

Phenomenal camo outfit on Witkoff during his Gaza visit, up there with Kash Patel’s designer hunting camo from earlier this year

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

bsky.app/profile/wesl...

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

This was a common shorthand for him for many years! I feel old

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

This was a common shorthand for him for many years! I feel old

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

I mean, I would’ve listened to that. More for UBL than Douthat.

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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

brasidas @brasidas.bsky.social · 9d

[at the BORTAC shura]

"Our HOA is all pro-BORTAC. The HOA down the road is hardcore Antifa."

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Even as IDF units halt their combat operations, the ceasefire doesn't prohibit them from continuing demolition operations in the areas they still control. So within the roughly 55 percent of the strip they still control, we can expect the razing of Khan Younis, for example, to continue.

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

bsky.app/profile/wesl...

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Today's ceasefire withdrawal leaves the IDF in control of a large proportion of Gaza's former urban areas (outlined in white)—all of Rafah; most of Khan Younis; Beit Hanoun; and Gaza City's Shejaiya neighborhood.

Areas where we know nearly all buildings have been demolished are shaded black.

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d

This is a Tom Clancy joke. But they did just get snazzy new uniforms…

Swiss Guards, protectors of the pope, don new uniforms

The 135 Swiss Guards will don the new uniforms for the first time at a dinner the night before the Oct. 4 ceremony to swear in this year’s recruits.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d

Now this sounds like a job for the Swiss Guards! apnews.com/article/mide...

US is sending about 200 troops to Israel to help support and monitor the Gaza ceasefire deal

The United States is sending about 200 troops to Israel to help support and monitor the ceasefire deal in Gaza as part of a team that includes partner nations, nongovernmental organizations and privat...

apnews.com

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, as the article describes, they’re going to work at a distribution/monitoring center in Israel. No one is talking about US troops playing a role as a peacekeeping or stabilization force, as far as I’ve heard (certainly not this deployment).

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