Coalition battling Fedayeen and "MYSTERY" forces

Bob Arnot, MSNBC

[Drammach]

Fatah..

I remember reading somewhere that Yasser Arafat's Fatah forces had been sent to fight in Iraq.

Reason for the silence on identification?
Bush & Blair's "Road Map to Peace" for the Middle East..
Palestinian Authority military support for Saddam Hussein and his regime will not play well during negotiations with Israel.

I would not doubt that there are Al Aksah, and Hezbullah forces there as well, and other palestinian terror groups.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

a group he said he WAS NOT ALLOWED TO IDENTIFY. Al Qaeda? Any other guesses? He did indicate that these are highly skilled fighters, especially in regards to sniping.

Highly skilled snipers..hmmm.. How about Iranian-trained Iraqi expats?

[10mm]

Mystery force = North Koreans. [/speculation]

[HiTech RedNeck]

2. Kill them, quietly, out of sight of cameras. Avoids many risks.

Our cameras won't see it, but what you want to bet Ba'ath has embeds too. Al Jazeera will show this later today if this is what's happening.

[HiTech RedNeck]

under the scorching sun in their all-black uniforms

Stuuuuuuuuuuuupid planner, whoever came up with that ninja suit scheme. Black is not just a thermal killer, it doesn't hide well in the desert. Which is just as well if worse comes to worst and we have to hunt them down.

[truth_seeker]

"Our cameras won't see it, but what you want to bet Ba'ath has embeds too. Al Jazeera will show this later today if this is what's happening."

I gave two alternates. My guess is that if conditions permitted, we would NOT shoot them.

We would try to capture them, for rehabilitation, accepting the fairly big risks.

But if they fire at coalition forces, alongside other enemy forces, there is little alternative to not return fire.

We would take the risk of al-Jazeera coverage, hoping to simply let the truth come out, and tell of the Saddam mad reign.

Our arab & muslim enemies come from societies which have totally different standards. We care about such controvertial issues; they don't care (for they employ them, over and over).

They shot wheelchair-bound Jewish tourist in the head, in front of his wife, then pushed him overboard.

The mothers send their teenage sons and daughters awaay, with bombs straped to themselves, to enter discos and busses.

With the exception of the Rape of Nanking, I haven't read about human war related violations of civility, like those regularly employed by arabs and muslims.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I would think it a pity to let Al-Jazeera set the tone on this issue, to show nicely edited clips of coalition troops cutting these kids down. We have an equally valid point to make about how abusive Saddam was to recruit this band of little ninjas. If that is indeed the mystery fighters being referred to.

[Eagle Eye]

French Foreign Legion

The FFL are not French. I've trained with and been trained by FFL cadre and they are NOT the same as the French army.

[truth_seeker]

"I would think it a pity to let Al-Jazeera set the tone on this issue, to show nicely edited clips of coalition troops cutting these kids down."

For that reason (avoiding bad publicity) I think we would prefer to capture them alive, taking the risk that in the long run, they might need killing when they are older.

We don't always get to do exactly what we would prefer. We would prefer to kill no unarmed non-combatant civilians, but it cannot be completely avoided.

Likewise we cannot avoid killing 14 year olds, if they shoot at us and refuse surrender, and our troopers' lives are on the line.

War is dangerous, risky, messy. Sometimes in the movies the bad guys look good, and the good guys look bad. In this small aspect, this war is a little like such a movie scene.

Unlike a movie, it is a "one take" scene. Play the cards you get dealt, even if the deal is dirty.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #11

It is an old system used by Ottoman Turks, called "Devsirme".

[thoughtomator]

Russians aren't known for being suicidal. I would wager the mystery forces are Jordanian or Egyptian.

[TheRightGuy]

kosovo

[Space Wrangler]

That was in Kosovo. The Russians beat us to the airport, but then wound up begging for food and water so they didn't die from lack of supplies. A very short lived tactical victory that is possible only in the world of politics. In a true combat environment, the Russian operation would have been an abysmal failure.

[archy]

Though, again, not sure how many are how great a marksmen.

Some Chinese should be/could be.

Not sure about the PLO.

Unfortunately, the PLO's *Palestinian authority* has some very credible long-range riflemen. They should be, after all, we trained 40 of them, as a part of the Clinton *Peace* plan.

[expatpat]

You have to remember that the French Foreign Legion was indeed mostly foreigners, often guys on the run from the law. Since they were not French, they have a superlative record for brave action, NOT surrendering.

[hchutch]

My guesses:

1. Former Russian Army Spetznaz hiring out - brokered by the mafiya or other elements.

2. Some sort of Condor legion from some of the neo-Nazis in Europe and elsewhere.

[wardaddy]

With the exception of the Rape of Nanking, I haven't read about human war related violations of civility, like those regularly employed by arabs and muslims.

I thought they were the cradle of Western Civilization and Culture and really much better than us.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Hey, now. Let's be series.

[GraniteStateConservative]

I miss my childhood.

[The Toll]

Whoever they are they will soon be "Mysterious" dead bodies that can not be identified.