Do you know what you're on about, Chan?
First, you have a conscript army. By that measure alone the SAF
cannot afford to do what all-regular armies do, i.e. avoid direct
intakes into their paratrooper units. Have you seen the conscript
model do Israel any harm?
If it's not about the training, what is it about? Are you going to
take your chances with nature and pray for a bumper crop of
supermen each and every year? Personally, I'd go with factors that
I can control and focus on implementing a training system that
produces the best results regardless of the material that you start
with.
I've said it many times before - plenty of men from other units can
outrun, outjump and out-situp Commandos. On the other hand, put a
Commando and an infantryman side-by-side, have them charlie-mike
for 96 hours and then get them to solve a tactical problem, and
then you'll see the difference. Sure, both will be tired, but
betting odds are that the Commando will be less vulnerable to the
"shack cannot think" syndrome. I don't care if you can run a
four-minute mile - if you can't think at the end of that four
minutes, you're still as useless as teats on a bull.
Guess what? The difference doesn't lie in what either man was like
when he enlisted. Instead, one would have been pushed to the limit
in training while the other would not - it's that simple. I used to
be astounded by hearing men from other units (which I won't name)
KPKB about doing two rehearsals before an exercise. We used to do
25 rehearsals, covering all the different permutations and
combinations of casualties and remaining teams, before each
exercise, and these guys are complaining about having to do it a
second time?
You're right, Chan - it's simply the training that makes the
difference. Hell, right from enlistment day the instructors used to
give an evil grin and say, "You can be trained". If you think
that the raw material is more important than the training, you
really don't understand the job at all.
As for CDO not being SF, well, duh. We're light infantry with
airborne capability and we always have been, just like the US
Rangers and British Paras. I don't know where you get the idea that
we're SF.
