I don’t know what this has to do with military readiness or if it makes them better soldiers, but they get props for their unique flair.
Defense Secretary James Mattis was the guest at a grand military display by Indonesia’s troops. How it would go over in the U.S., I’m not so sure, but somebody should make a reality TV show out of it.
Of those feats, there was rolling in broken glass, breaking bricks over their heads, fire walking, and drinking snake blood.
Yeah. I just said that. Drinking snake blood, because, of course.
The group of reporters traveling with Mattis on the three-day trip to Indonesia had been told he would view a routine military demonstration at Indonesia’s armed forces headquarters.
I’m flabbergasted, in the most wonderful way.
One Indonesian soldier who wore a hood over his face used a knife to cut a cucumber that was in his colleague’s mouth. Another blindfolded man shot a balloon that was in between another soldier’s legs. One of the shots missed, but Reuters reported no one appeared to have been injured.
OH… that could have gone SO badly.
Then they trotted the guys with the venomous snakes out – even a King Cobra, which was dropped near Mattis. Before anything could happen, they cut off the heads and drank the blood.
One guy even decided to go above and beyond, and he bit into a snake while it was still alive.
“You could imagine how much training went into each individual there, that they were able to do that,” Mattis later told reporters aboard his plane. “When you watch a force do that, many small things, perfectly, you can imagine that they can also put the bigger things together.”
Other Indonesian forces broke concrete bricks with their heads and smashed piles of burning blocks with their hands.
These are some baaaaaaad men.
Get this…
With the theme to “Mission Impossible” playing, they conducted a mock hostage rescue.
All of this is part of the Indonesian military’s attempts to mend fences with the Pentagon, after some human rights abuses of the 90s resulted in a restriction of the relationship.
Whatever the outcome, you have to see this:
Special forces in Indonesia demonstrates to Mattis their ability to eat snakes. pic.twitter.com/I24p5adzsG
— Paul D. Shinkman (@PDShinkman) January 24, 2018
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