Frankly I think it would be better for the American Republic in the long run that it never learns this particular nasty lesson, as it will only retard its progress towards true freedom. And for a supposedly conservative Republican Presidency, it should be the first and most memorable lesson from Father of Conservative Movement - Edmund Burke, who incidentally tried to impeach Warren Hastings for violating, among other things, laws of warfare.

"I think you're right. I haven't or don't remember any mention of a Rhodesian Paratroop Bn. I think the RLI were it. Of course the SAS were parachute qualified, but that's not exactly the same as a conventional airborne force. I don't think, however, that the RLI became, a parachute until sanctions began to take a toll on the number of available Allouette helos. That is when they started to use Dakotas, cargo planes, to insert their fireforces. At the height of the war, troops of the RLI were doing 3 combat drops per day!!!" This thread got me to do a little reading and I have since found out that the Rhodesian African Rifles, an all black regiment, were also eventually parachute trained and conducted a lot of fireforce operations. The Rhodesian African Rifles were a multi battalion regiment as well. I'm not sure how many battalions they eventually had on active duty.

"the Rhodesian African Rifles, an all black regiment" I made a mistake. The Rhodesian African Rifles was made up of black enlisted and white officers. Go figure.

>>I made a mistake. The Rhodesian African Rifles was made up of black enlisted and white officers. Go figure.<< Yeah, that was Rhodesia for you. Ron Reid Daly mentions in his book that they also had seperate NCO chains for white soldiers and black soldiers, up to the Sergeant Major level (I seem to recall that their African sergeant major was the first black airborne qualified soldier in the country).

Black soldiers and white officers? Snipers paridise...

>>Black soldiers and white officers? Snipers paridise...<< In theory, yes. In practice, the guerillas in Rhodesia were strictly of the "AK at hip level, pull trigger, and swing barrel from side to side" school of combat marksmanship. One of the reason white troops and/or white-led African troops have traditionally been able to so readily smash and rout larger all-native forces is because European style training involves actually aiming and hitting specific targets. Nothing takes the ideological fervor out of illiterate peasants quite like putting a thousand rounds downrange for no hits, while a unit a tenth your size shoots twenty rounds back and puts ten of your guys on the ground . . .

Hey, didn't the Rhodesians first develop the Drake shoot? I've been looking for an actual manual that details this. Does anyone know of one?

>>Hey, didn't the Rhodesians first develop the Drake shoot? I've been looking for an actual manual that details this. Does anyone know of one?<< I think it did originate with them, in the Selous Scouts specifically. I don't know of any manuals about it, though.

"Top Secret War" by Ron Reid-Daly ---used paperbacks currently start at $59 on Amazon.

If all you want is paramilitaries and direct action in a permissive environment, we did that in Vietnam. If you want American-born native speakers, open some recruiting stations in Brooklyn - Iraqi or Syrian or Iranian Jews, Afghans, whatever. Or better yet, recruit Iraqi groups. If this analogy is correct - in police work, snitches aren't always gang members.