# My civil war survival story in the last 3 years



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

Today in our world political tension is every where and this is an alarm for every one .

My name is omar and i live in the middle east the most hot spot on earth , civil war is already eating Syria and Iraq and other countries is about to explode . I have been through the worst disaster , civil war for 3 years and i want to share my surviving experiment with all who want to prepare thim self to survive any crisis or disaster.

To all people in Europe or America i noticed that a lot of them are preparing themselves to survive , but i noticed horrible mistakes in their plans.

Whatever that you are preparing for .. represented the last three years of my life ..civil war ,which is in my opinion the worst disaster ,if you survive a civil war you can survive any disaster.

While searching in the internet for sites talking about preparing for disasters
i noticed that most of these sites focusing on self preparing or family preparing and on pushing you to buy various staff like food , water filters , arms , .. etc , i don't say that this is not important but self preparing only is not enough and may be deadly alone there is other preparing s which is by my experiment is more important and does not include buying or marketing.

First of all or any disaster preparing there is two missions for you :

1- Group preparing which is by my experiment represents 66.6% of the disaster preparing.

2- Self preparing which includes every thing that you can do alone like buying supplies , learning , training ,..etc.

FOR MORE INFO visit civilwarsurvival.wordpress.com

For any questions send email to me : [email protected]


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

Welcome Omar. I am sure many here will be interested in your thoughts. I am curious what you think a "group" should look like, what it should do to prepare, and the sorts of challenges that are handled by the group as opposed to individuals.


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Geek999 said:


> Welcome Omar. I am sure many here will be interested in your thoughts. I am curious what you think a "group" should look like, what it should do to prepare, and the sorts of challenges that are handled by the group as opposed to individuals.


He is only here to draw traffic to his blog. I don't think he will post anything of interest here in the forum.


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

Grimm said:


> He is only here to draw traffic to his blog. I don't think he will post anything of interest here in the forum.


Peculiar motives are a risk with each new member. I'm curious to see what he may say.


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f2/selco-tells-survival-serbia-civil-war-8381/

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-p...ugh-shtf-in-the-middle-of-a-war-zone_10252011

http://shtfschool.com/

http://2012forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=26662


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Geek999 said:


> Peculiar motives are a risk with each new member. I'm curious to see what he may say.


I'd love to see what he has to say too. Right now I highly doubt he will post anything here that will be worth reading. If he had something of value to share he should have posted it here rather than tell us all to go check out his blog.

Notice he basically told us we are all doing it wrong and should go to his blog to learn more?!


----------



## machinist (Jul 4, 2012)

I read his blog and I don't have any problem with that. I appreciate the first hand experience and the lessons he has learned the hard way. I don't see him selling anything, but I didn't really dig into it. In any case, free info, especially front line stuff is not to be sneezed at. 

Omar, thanks for the tips. 

I have also read Ferfal's stuff and some others. I appreciate all contributions to the general knowledge.


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

LincTex said:


> http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f2/selco-tells-survival-serbia-civil-war-8381/
> 
> http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-p...ugh-shtf-in-the-middle-of-a-war-zone_10252011
> 
> ...


Is this the same guy?


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Hopefully he will add more info.

He may not have ready access to a computer/internet.


----------



## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

Welcome to the forum eng1omar. I appreciate you coming by to share your experience. I also believe the lone wolf approach to be extremely risky. Unfortunately it is very difficult to get a like minded group of moderate to large size with a high level of commitment together for any length of time. Thats why I network as much as possible while I self prepare. Ill be interested to read your posts.


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

Grimm said:


> I'd love to see what he has to say too. Right now I highly doubt he will post anything here that will be worth reading. If he had something of value to share he should have posted it here rather than tell us all to go check out his blog.
> 
> Notice he basically told us we are all doing it wrong and should go to his blog to learn more?!


grimm ! don't misunderstood me i dont say that self preparing is wrong but it is not enough we have to prepare as a group .


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

Geek999 said:


> Is this the same guy?


 no im not him


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

I think most of us would agree with the idea that we need to prepare as a group. However there are challenges as well as benefits. For instance:

The neighbors you mentioned may not be interested.
The need for OPSEC.
The lack of useful participation by members of the group who have not fully bought into the need.

My neighbors don't seem to be willing to buy generators despite having had some severe outages due to hurricanes. The idea of them prepping for civil war seems unlikely.

So how did you go about convincing your group to prepare before the need became obvious?


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

Geek999 said:


> I think most of us would agree with the idea that we need to prepare as a group. However there are challenges as well as benefits. For instance:
> 
> The neighbors you mentioned may not be interested.
> The need for OPSEC.
> ...


what is OPSEC ?
Group preparing is a must for any disaster not only to civil war only , but the need for it more important for civil war because civil war is a security crisis in the first place and you will not be secure in civil war alone
in other words you dont need a group preparing to buy a gun but you will not be safe alone with your gun the prepared group brings security


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

eng1omar said:


> what is OPSEC ?
> Group preparing is a must for any disaster not only to civil war only , but the need for it more important for civil war because civil war is a security crisis in the first place and you will not be secure in civil war alone


OPSEC is *OP*erational *SEC*urity. The need to keep your preparations secure and secret so you don't have your entire town knocking on your door for food and shelter.


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

Grimm said:


> OPSEC is *OP*erational *SEC*urity. The need to keep your preparations secure and secret so you don't have your entire town knocking on your door for food and shelter.


oh my god ..... this OPESC is a bad challenge .... when the disaster hits a town like this will see bad things . 
any way start preparing with men convinced with the importance of disaster preparing . step by step the town will be better prepared


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

eng1omar said:


> oh my god ..... this OPESC is a bad challenge .... when the disaster hits a town like this will see bad things .
> any way start preparing with men convinced with the importance of disaster preparing . step by step the town will be better prepared


Here in the US the government pushes for the people to be dependent on their help and not doing for themselves. Too many people here think they deserve to be taken care of by others rather than taking care of themselves. This makes preparing as a group hard since these people will not want to work or contribute in any way.

This is the reason here in the US we prepare alone or for our families only.

Another thought is a small town here can contain a thousand people. Getting the majority of those people to see the need to prepare even as a group would be very hard if not impossible.

I use to live in the mountains in a hamlet (not big enough to be a town so there is no central government.). There were 1173 people living in this hamlet scattered all over the mountain side. Some lived sooooo far from the main road they used outhouses and had no electricity. No one could organize this hamlet to prepare as a group because of the distance between everyone and how hard it may be to get to each other.

I also want to point out something that Geek mentioned. People here see natural disasters all the time and still see no reason to prepare themselves let alone help others.


----------



## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

We prepare for our family but also have enough guns, ammo, land, food, water, shelter, etc for many more. We never know what situations or opportunities many present themselves post SHTF so we figure extra everything can't hurt.


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

hi grimm my town is worse than your hamlet andt when the civil war started some moved away and who remained in the town gathered in 10 houses which are the closest to each other, and we left the houses that are on the edge of the town . start with your closest neighbors


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

Did your group that wound up in the 10 houses actually prepare in advance? I can see being able to organize once a crisis is apparent, but preppers are so limited here in the US that most of our neighbors would think we were paranoid if we brought up preparing for a civil war. I have suggested to neighbors that preparing for hurricanes make sense and to the best of my knowledge, none of them have done anything, despite actually having had mulltiple hurricanes.

In this part of the country only about 1 in 10 households even owns a gun, despite it being perfectly legal to do so. I can't picture what I would say to any of them that would cause them to just go to the store and buy a rifle and a box of ammo, let alone organize in some fashion.


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

oh geek999 this doe not look good ... anyway if the neighbors are hopeless start with your friends and never give up


----------



## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Omar, welcome to Prepared Society, from the state of Missouri. I look forward to learning from you.


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

eng1omar said:


> oh geek999 this doe not look good ... anyway if the neighbors are hopeless start with your friends and never give up


Actually, where I have started is with family. I suspect that is what most of the folks here have done. Some have included friends, but I suspect only those in more rural settings have worked with neighbors.

You are right it does not look good. On the other hand civil war has only occurred once in this country and that was 150 years ago. The system of government is one that traditionally has adjusted to excesses before we reached the point of civil war. I can't say that will always be true, but it has been true to date.

As a result, most in the US are more concerned about other types of failure, e.g. an economic breakdown, or even other types of war, e.g. nuclear or EMP attack.

However, you are right that my neighbors will not do well under any of these scenarios. I am sorry to tell you that in most of our urban areas people have been taught to just call 911 (our emergency services number) for any type of problem to the point where they really can't imagine a disaster on the scale of a civil war.

The result is that the typical prepper here is more inclined to keep quiet (OPSEC) so he doesn't find hundreds or thousands of people, or the government, coming to his house looking for help when a disaster does strike.

Basically, the approach is to accumulate supplies, training, etc. for one's own family or broader group if one has been organized. The largest group I have heard of is less than 100 people. In my own case I am prepping for 16 people, all family.

The topic of how to convince others to prep has been discussed here in a few threads and members of this forum sometimes have supportive families and sometimes even have difficulty getting family members to prep, let alone a broader group.

That is why I am curious as to how your group formed and what they did in advance of the civil war.


----------



## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

I had the same question as geek. Did you all prepare ahead of time as a group or did you only pull together when circumstances made it necessary? Im assuming you all pulled together when it became necessary. If thats the case what are some things you could have done before hand to make pulling together as a group easier when the time came to do so? What we do, as a small group of about 10, is train and prep as much as we can. We hope to survive any initial craziness and then use our resources and training to expand into several groups that can coordinate to lend assistance to the community. Kind of a train the trainer mentality.


----------



## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

*My opinion on his civil war survival solution.*

The problem in the Middle East is that no one is together, they have been fighting each other for hundreds of years now so obviously they don`t practice what he claims to be and here in this country and for what I have experience with my own two hands and have lately seen on the news after a event or shtf situation people come out of the woods to help each other not kill each other just because they happen to be different. I`m sorry.
Group or Hermit Peppers, we in this country have always pull together.


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

readytogo said:


> The problem in the Middle East is that no one is together, they have been fighting each other for hundreds of years now so obviously they don`t practice what he claims to be and here in this country and for what I have experience with my own two hands and have lately seen on the news after a event or shtf situation people come out of the woods to help each other not kill each other just because they happen to be different. I`m sorry.
> Group or Hermit Peppers, we in this country have always pull together.


You think we always pull together? Is this where I say "Great, I'm coming to your house"? 

As for eng1omar's situation, I'd still like to hear what he experienced. 10 houses sounds like approximately 100 people. I'd like to hear how a group of 100 people managed to survive a civil war.


----------



## piglett (Dec 10, 2010)

welcome Omar

glad to have you with us




piglett


----------



## piglett (Dec 10, 2010)

eng1omar said:


> you will not be safe alone with your gun the prepared group brings security


your saying there is safety numbers

i would say that you are correct

you need someone to watch your back

1 man with 100 guns is still only 1 man

but 10 men who each have a gun can help keep each other safe:thumbraise:


----------



## Gians (Nov 8, 2012)

Had some but ideas but...

"2- food : it is not enough to store food but you have to produce your own food , how ? buy a cow , some goats , chickens and penguins which are great birds you know why ? because they don,t depend on you to get their food the fly for long distances and find their food alone !!."

penguins? :dunno:


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Gians said:


> Had some but ideas but...
> 
> "2- food : it is not enough to store food but you have to produce your own food , how ? buy a cow , some goats , chickens and penguins which are great birds you know why ? because they don,t depend on you to get their food the fly for long distances and find their food alone !!."
> 
> penguins? :dunno:


Penguins live in varied climates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galapagos_Penguin


----------



## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

Welcome Omar.


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

thanks camo2460 and piglett.
geek999 ! 
i talk about civil war only because i faced it and i think it is the worst, imagine Americans killed by other Americans . any way in case of USA economic breakdown is enough to trigger the civil war .
group preparing can be done even by 5 people

to *CrackbottomLouis it just happend and we were not prepared my town was about 5000 living in it now we are about 125 we get xpirnice bu time but with high price which i dont want any one to pay so group preparing is deadly important
*


----------



## Lake Windsong (Nov 27, 2009)

Gians said:


> Had some but ideas but...
> 
> "2- food : it is not enough to store food but you have to produce your own food , how ? buy a cow , some goats , chickens and penguins which are great birds you know why ? because they don,t depend on you to get their food the fly for long distances and find their food alone !!."
> 
> penguins? :dunno:


I'm thinking pigeons....


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

eng1omar said:


> thanks camo2460 and piglett.
> geek999 !
> i talk about civil war only because i faced it and i think it is the worst, imagine Americans killed by other Americans . any way in case of USA economic breakdown is enough to trigger the civil war .
> group preparing can be done even by 5 people
> ...


So you weren't prepared in advance, but you organized once you knew you had a civil war on your hands. What did you do to get organized?

BTW: It is encouraging to hear you say we can start with 5 people. That's a family. Also, while we are not all at the same level of preparedness, we are all doing some level of preparation now, not waiting for disaster to motivate us, so perhaps there is room for optimism here.


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

eng1omar said:


> thanks camo2460 and piglett.
> geek999 !
> i talk about civil war only because i faced it and i think it is the worst, imagine Americans killed by other Americans . any way in case of USA economic breakdown is enough to trigger the civil war .
> group preparing can be done even by 5 people
> ...


Just to enforce Geek's question...

*What did you do to get organized?*


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

Grimm said:


> Just to enforce Geek's question...
> 
> *What did you do to get organized?*


1- find 5 people believe in group preparing {family , friends or neighbors} 
2- study your nieghbohood : exits , criminals in the town ,any caves , strong or huge buildings ...etc 
3- the group should train to fight and defend as one unit
4- increase the number of the group as you can


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

eng1omar said:


> 1- find 5 people believe in group preparing {family , friends or neighbors}
> 2- study your nieghbohood : exits , criminals in the town ,any caves , strong or huge buildings ...etc
> 3- the group should train to fight and defend as one unit
> 4- increase the number of the group as you can


Is this what you did or what you recommend?


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

grimm said:


> is this what you did or what you recommend?


both of them


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

eng1omar said:


> 1- find 5 people believe in group preparing {family , friends or neighbors}
> 2- study your nieghbohood : exits , criminals in the town ,any caves , strong or huge buildings ...etc
> 3- the group should train to fight and defend as one unit
> 4- increase the number of the group as you can


Were you expecting to be on one side of the war, or were you just trying to defend yourselves if attacked? What about women, children, elderly, etc.? What about food and other supplies?


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

Geek999 said:


> Were you expecting to be on one side of the war, or were you just trying to defend yourselves if attacked? What about women, children, elderly, etc.? What about food and other supplies?


 we just defending ourselves 
women, children and elderly are kept in safe places and helping us and each themselves : one woman is a teacher learning the kids and other old people and women working in farms ....


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

eng1omar said:


> we just defending ourselves
> women, children and elderly are kept in safe places and helping us and each themselves : one woman is a teacher learning the kids and other old people and women working in farms ....


Some of us live in rural areas where there is farming, etc. However, many live in more urbanized areas, so supplies like food become an issue very rapidlly in a breakdown. It sounds llike your group was sellf sufficient. Is that right or did you need to deal with shortages?


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

Geek999 said:


> Some of us live in rural areas where there is farming, etc. However, many live in more urbanized areas, so supplies like food become an issue very rapidly in a breakdown. It sounds llike your group was self sufficient. Is that right or did you need to deal with shortages?


 i think cities will face more challenges as : 1-cities re more important targets for both sides of any civil war 2- in cities there is more organized crimes or gangs than country . 3- in cities food problem will be more difficult 
4-A break down of the traditional familyso : 1-i think group preparing is more important in cities 2- i advice people in cities to store more food because in cities you cannot produce your food , unlike country 2- when any disaster hits leave cities towards country . my group faced hard time with food until we finally could produce our food which is not enough any way it is enough to keep us alive .


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

eng1omar said:


> i think cities will face more challenges as : 1-cities re more important targets for both sides of any civil war 2- in cities there is more organized crimes or gangs than country . 3- in cities food problem will be more difficult so : 1-i think group preparing is more important in cities 2- i advice people in cities to store more food because in cities you cannot produce your food , unlike country 2- when any disaster hits leave cities towards country . my group faced hard time with food until we finally could produce our food which is not enough any way it is enough to keep us alive now i lost 30 kg .


Do you mind telling us what country this happened in? If you are still there and need to maintain OPSEC, we will understand.


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

30 kilograms is 66.138679 pounds for those that wanted to know.


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

i mean by country : countryside :farms or rural areas


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

eng1omar said:


> i mean by country : countryside :farms or rural areas


Geek is curious as to where the civil war took place.


----------



## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

Syria? Africa? The Balkans? Knowing where al this took place will provide some background?


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

In civil war cities is more dangerous than countryside or rural area and most engagements or battles take place in cities


----------



## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

It would seem that you do not wish to tell us the name of the nation you are in. We understand your caution and approve.

Please correct me if I am wrong, I am trying to understand what happened. If I understand correctly you started preparing early in your civil war. About the time the war started your neighbors had their eyes opened and became members of your group. 

Here we have an expression, "you can lead a horse to water but you can not make it drink." Most of us have tried to awaken our friends to little effect. About 35 years ago I had a friend laugh at me and say, "I'll just come to your house." People still say that to me so I am very careful to whom I make these suggestions. Too many will wake up to the danger too late. I don't need a bunch of people showing up at my door with nothing except an empty belly. You are 100% correct, a group is a better way to go. I do not have a group and, unfortunately, I do not see that changing until things go bad.

Please let us know how you pulled your group together. That will be a valuable lesson.


----------



## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

Grimm said:


> 30 kilograms is 66.138679 pounds for those that wanted to know.


Okay... a few less smothered burritos from Taco Hell and I'll try to work on those 30 kilos 

but I really like pizza. and smothered burritos... and smashburger is okay but their smashchicken sandwich > all

dont even get me started on pizza. oh wait, I mentioned that already


----------



## eng1omar (May 12, 2014)

Caribou said:


> It would seem that you do not wish to tell us the name of the nation you are in. We understand your caution and approve.
> 
> Please correct me if I am wrong, I am trying to understand what happened. If I understand correctly you started preparing early in your civil war. About the time the war started your neighbors had their eyes opened and became members of your group.
> 
> ...


don't give up making group its a matter of life and death 2 is batter than 1 and 3 is better than 2 in facing civil war my group did not exist before the war it starts assembling after the beginning of the war its main core was me and 3 of our neighbors and increased by time we were lucky to have ex warrior among us he trained us very well .


----------

