Special Forces

I sort of wonder...all the choices made so far seem to be from the mediterranean area, europe, australia, or the US. Anyone know whether there are immensely elite forces anywhere else? presumably there's some latin american, african, or asian special forces unit that qualifies as "very good".

...or is that just kind of a vain hope?

So, they tend to not really require a special unit because they don't end up having a lot of wars or disputes that require that particular type of soldier?

Cool! I also found that, apparently, the AFEUR of colombia, who specialize in urban counterterrorism, are considered a very top notch unit, due to constant training and continual exposure to live operations.

...Not terribly surprising, when I think about it, but you never really hear about them. But, to be honest, you rarely hear about special forced of anywhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrupaci%C3%B3n_de_Fuerzas_Especiales_Antiterroristas_Urbanas

And yes, I do know that wikipedia can be an unreliable source, but since the page has no "the factual accuracy of this page is disputed" tag, I figure it's probably reasonably accurate.

Originally posted by YohjiArmstrong These being the same Hezbollah who have admitted they were 5 days from defeat?

Source?  Please!  I find it very hard to believe Hezbollah would openly admit to this! 

With all due respect, you need to stop smoking what ever it is you're smoking b'coz it's going to your head.  "defeat"?  Please.  You mispoke.  You mean:  "Temporary defeat".  No matter what, Hezbollah would have and is coming back with a vengence.  This is why the Israelis high-tailed it outta Dodge, with tail between leg.  They knew they could stay and drop more & more phosphorous bombs to kill more Lebanese children than Hezbollah soldiers, and perhaps win in another 2 or 3 months, but they could never occupy Lebanon like they once did. 

Why?  Because the Committee of Eternally Pissed-Off Ayatollahs in Iran will make sure Hezbollah comes back with a vengence--that's why!  It was none other than the Iranians who armed and trained Hezbollah into the crack fighting force they had become during the intervening years between the time Israel pulled out and August 2006, when Israel reinvaded.

Originally posted by YohjiArmstrong Hezbollah certainly bruised Israel's nose and taught them not to be so cocky.

Agreed.

Originally posted by YohjiArmstrong But the main Israeli land based objectives were achieved. The Israeli defeat was, more than anything, a public relations defeat. That said, Hezbollah were partly responsible for the PR work. I think I'd hand them the victory- just not for their fighting.

These being the same Israelis who thought it would be a 3 to 4 day long cake-walk like it was in past invasions of Lebanon?

Originally posted by YohjiArmstrong Nor are Hezbollah's tactics really those of guerillas, rather more those of light infantry.

Hardly, for that's exactly what they were doing:  Urban guerilla warefare.  There was no way they could go up against a mechanized force with air support, so they fought them in towns and cities.

Originally posted by YohjiArmstrong Hezbollah actually did try to defeat Israel's attacks rather than just trying to kill their men and make their life difficult. Bunkers for instance were fairly common.

You mean to say Hezbollah had fighter pilots too?  No way, for the most part they went assymetrical.  Why?  They had too.  Did they use infrantry tactics?  Sure.  Commando tactics?   Sure.  But the overall strategy was to fight in away that denied the Israelis their conventional and technological advantages.

BTW, you also forgot that Hezbollah had a vast underground network of tunnels between bunkers, urban buildings, and so on.  Like I said, Hezbollah went assymetrical as they had planned all along.

How is what Hezbollah did so different than what the Iraqi insurgents are doing in Iraq.  From time to time, they do try to fight US troops head on, albeit more in the first two years of the US's occupation of Iraq.  Indeed, it was the Iranians who taught Hezbollah how to make IED's which the Iraqis now use ad nauseum .  Indeed, ad rectum. 

What does the Foreign Legion have to do with SF??

Originally posted by ChrisBoonzaier What does the Foreign Legion have to do with SF??

Edited by pikeshot1600 - 07-Jan-2008 at 00:05

I don't think you missed anything.  If you were in Desert Storm, that was 17 years ago.  Things have changed, that's all.

The only group that might last a few minutes against Chuck Norris would be the S.A.S

Hi, In my opinion it's pretty obvious that if you're the one who creates something of such ingenious, then of course you will be the best at it. The British SAS/SBS/SFG/Pathfinders are the best you can get. The Aussie counterparts of the SAS are an extremely capable force as we trained them (and still train frequently to this day) first, fore mostly.

When you get up close to a Spetsnaz/GRU combatant you outta run.

And the Yanks aren't to shabby either, they are just too numerical in their selection.

No one mentioned JTF-2? They're so good that nobody even knows what they do or what they've accomplished :P They did recieve a unit citation from the Americans in Afghanistan though, only the second Canadian unit in history to do so.