Pictured: British Troops Wear Santa Hats to Fight the Taliban - After They Come Under Fire....

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | December 23, 2008 | David Williams

[Cecily]

Christmas for the Commandos in Afghanistan was always going to be different - but no one could have predicted just how different. One minute they were singing carols at dusk beneath a mellow sun in the baked bare wasteland of Helmand province while wearing festive Santa hats, the next they were firing mortars after their Christmas Day service came under attack from the Taliban. So rapid was the reaction of Royal Marines of 40 Commando that within less than a minute of the first "contact" from the Taliban's machine guns, they had sprinted the 200 metres to their mortar lines and had begun to return fire.

[r9etb]

Down, girl....

[sneakers]

cool!

[ASOC]

ROTFLMAO!!

Took a couple of min to quit chocking, I was laffing so hard.

We spend MILLIONS in “police training” to get THIS!

WHat does mashing a cement block have to do with police work? Thuggery, yes - police work - I doubt it.

[Turbo Pig]

WHat does mashing a cement block have to do with police work? Thuggery, yes - police work - I doubt it.

It's a middle-east thing. The police can not do their job, unless the locals are thoroughly impressed with them. In a part of the world where most people think like angst ridden teen-agers, with little self control, these kinds of theatrics impress people. Thuggery is not too terribly far removed from police work in most third world countries, and even less far removed in the middle east.

[BGHater]

If they don’t cut it as cops, they can always help Penn & Teller.

[chae]

you are so right!

[bannie]

Nice muscles, too.

[SiVisPacemParaBellum]

I can only hope they send as much Christmas cheer as they have stored in the depot to all those Taliban, and a few rounds for the New Year too.

[ASOC]

Dunno - this doesn’t look like magic, it looks....stooopid.

I guess it is a culture thing. Bah.

[bk1000]

"...but doesn't the color bright red against desert dust make for a really easy sniper target?!?"

Yeah, go figure those wacky Britts!

[dighton]

“Right, you’ve been naughty.”

[ASOC]

LOL

#2 Son (Grunt, one each) spent a couple of years chasing hadji around the desert. Claims the hadjis are as bright as a typical 12 YO here in the US.

His favorite (sober) story - the night it rained bullets. (Soccer victory, gunshots in the sir....)

[Allegra]

That picture is priceless. I love it.

God bless our British friends.

[Peanut Gallery]

sweet

[Allegra]

His favorite (sober) story - the night it rained bullets. (Soccer victory, gunshots in the sir....)

It's insane. It literally rains bullets. Last year when Iraq won the Asia Cup, we were locked down inside our buildng for at least 45 minutes afer the victory listening to guns going off in all directions and bullets pinging all around the building. We all got "Asia Cup Souvenirs" once it was safe to go out.

[redhead]

"I find sooooo many things nice about that picture.
A) Muscles
B) Cute Santa hat showing sense of humor and Christmas spirit while doing a manly job
C) Just KNOWING that those fellas have a sexy British accent
D) They are handling ROCKETS!
E) Courage in a battlezone
F) Muscles

WOOT!! autumnraine, I HAVE to agree...

[river rat]

As nice as a mortar is — I would like it much better to see something MUCH larger being hurled or dropped from 15,000 feet on the Jihadi bastards.....

REALLY big!

[ASOC]

Well, in his story - the firing started and his Marines, being Marines, all ran to the revetment and starting scanning for incoming - son had to literally order them under cover.

Luckily - and Marines building well, like Marines, the sandbag OP was well up to the task.

He said the ground was so littered that it was difficult to walk - slick like snow/ice.

So, ya, hadjis are nutz.

[Lurker]

"Do you hear what I hear? A BOOM a BOOM!"

L

[calico_thompson]

Don’t the Daily Mail editors know that the PC term is “Winter Celebration,” and that many find the word “Christmas’ offensive, or at least very parochial? The abusive language “Merry Christmas” would never appear in enlightened US papers like the NY Times or Wash. Post.