Friday, March 27, 2009

World Series of mountain warriors

Thomas Ricks on Gurkhans vs. Taliban:

I didn't realize the Gurkhas were fighting in Afghanistan. This is like the World Series of mountain warriors. It also is a replay of the last British small war in the region, the fighting in Waziristan in the 1930s. John Masters wrote a wonderful memoir of commanding a Gurkha unit there in his classic Bugles and a Tiger. In a subsequent volume, The Road Past Mandalay, about fighting in World War II, he recalls at one point being surrounded by a Japanese unit in Burma, and his Gurkha sergeant major turning to him and saying, "Boy, am I glad these guys aren't Pashtuns!"

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/26/gurkhas_vs_taliban

Cites

Taliban attack Nato Routes
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/26/taliban-attack-nato-routes/

Gurkas Help Routs Taliban
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/90986/Gurkhas-help-rout-Taliban

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