Death Squads?

Let me start this by saying that in the 80's, I was living in Australia, and we heard as much about the U.S. as you heard about them, OK? So when I hear about Salvador, I think of Dali.

I don't care what you want to call them, this concept is as old as man. By what I can figure out, what we're supposedly looking at doing isn't much different than training up some locals to be as close as we can get them to the standards of Force Recon, Ranger, Sniper or SEAL. B.F.D.

Don't you think it's about time we get around to using some of the bad guy's tactics against them? I don't think this kind of training will approach that, dammit, but it's a real good start.

One thing that worries me about this. Think Taliban. When the Soviets were in Afghanistan, we were in Peshawar and other Northwest Frontier areas of Pakistan arming and training the Mujahadeen, and when the Russian Bear finally pulled out, these guys were sitting pretty - all dressed up and no place to go. Result? Islamic takeover of Kabul. Are we setting ourselves up for a similar result in Iraq?

Our governments seem to have not figured out that the bad guys in Iraq and elsewhere not only don't play by our rules, they don't play by any rules - and forget the Koran - that's just a loose guide at best and a handy excuse at worse.

I'm not calling for us to start sanctioning beheadings - nice, but optional. What I would like to see, though, is something more like what the police in Russia do. The Miranda Rules do not apply to these assholes. Can we please stop playing nice and get the f'kin job done? Huh?