Thai soldiers- real fighters

last SG · 2004-10-31T14:52:45+00:00

This Iron Man title is not improbable you know. When walking in the jungle during excercise in Singapore, my unit NEVER took cover when they hear shots fire...

idwar SG

I just saw on TV how Thai troops put down an illegal demonstration in South -Thailand........Just wondering if we are conquered by the Thais, ..........wah....expect to be treated without mercy..............they will chew off your balls.............

SibeiSuayKia SG

Thai soldiers are buddists and they are "supposed" to be compassionate..

Blacy eyed peas..where is the love..

|-|05| SG

it’s a good thing war is hell…....lest we grow to fond of it

sgdiehard SG

No reason for Thailand to conquer singapore, not unless they really have fun chewing off the balls of the malaysian first.

tankee1981 SG

Can't really blame them for their aggressive behaviour. Some of these 'peaceful' demonstrators are armed or highly possibly armed. Secondly, the riot policemen/soldiers(they look like soldiers to me on the video) are outnumbered. Imagine you are surrounded by an angry mob! Thirdly, i don't think these men are properly trained in riot control. Forthly, the Southern Thailand are in chaos for the past few years,i don't think they want to take any chances by being soft on these protesters. Very Happy

gary1910 SG

SG and the Thai are practically ally, can't say the same with MY, the Thai has always accused MY govt covert support of the Thai muslim separatist/terrorist in southern Thailand.

And with Thai army which is 4-5 times larger than MY, MY should be the one to thread carefully!!! Laughing

gary1910 SG

The whole region which was frequent by MY tourists is now practically a ghost town, no one dare to go out at night and to crowded areas becos of the bombings, & of course no tourists.

The crackdown will continue against muslim militants which attack school ,police stations & bombings, otherwise there will be no peace in southern Thailand.

One thing, the Thai is army no pushover, thru out the years where there armed incursion into Thailand like from Viets and Burmese, the Thai army will response in kind.

If the situation in Southern Thailand escalate, the Thai will send in more troops, no doubt abt it.

Moxie SG

The possibility of heavy-handededness exists in every army; the Thais are sometimes accused of extra-judicial killings & citizen disappearances as well, though not high-profile or extensive as the Indonesians.

No need to suspect them. The Thais are very skillful in maintaining political neutrality as well, having fending off European colonialism as well as, in the 20th century, the Jap aggression & the neighborly Vietnam War.

Do I respect their common soldier? Yes. (They serve 2-year NS as well, plus possible reservist until age 55.) Their command & control? Less so. It's a big country, & like the rest of the SE Asian armed forces, the armies are delegated more for internal security & counterinsurgency ops. Also, from a certain level of higher staff command onwards, there's a lot of political ambitions mixed in with regular-army duties. Nothing like the regional warlordism associated with early-20th C China, of course, or the military cliques of Myanmar. But I think the opportunity's there for Thai generals to establish power bases.

gary1910 SG

What I heard from a Thai friend, Thai NS system usually only enlist those lowly educated for NS, i.e. tough kampung boys. Those city boys which are mostly educated (of course not all) usually exempted from NS.

Simply becos the educated one will be more useful for the economy than let them serve NS.

Dr Who SG

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe Singapore was ruled by Thailand in 1400 AD.

When the Indon prince Parameswara fled here in 1400, he murdered the Thai chief. As a result, the Thais sent an expeditionary force to Singapore. Parameswara fled to Malacca where he founded the Malay kingdom.

The Thais followed him to Malacca and attempted to destroy Malacca on 2 separate occasions. Malacca had to appeal to the super-power China for protection. The presence of Cheng Ho (Zheng He) and the Chinese Navy kept the Thais at bay.

Will history repeat itself?

One Thai PM once threatened to send warships to Singapore a few years ago, I think...

beavan SG

well,they can say all they want,but they better solve their own problems first before picking problems with us

SibeiSuayKia SG

I can't imagine Thai Navy's One and only tiny aircraft carrier being sunk
by F-16's patrolling around South China Sea with Boeing Harpoons..

Same fate as Repulse and Prince of Wales..

Harpoons has over 160 km of range..

As long as singapore keeps those A-4 and continue to improve our F-5 Tiger II avionics..

and purchase 40-50 more NGF , I don't think even China could even reach singapore..

Japan could reach all the way during WWII ....and even to Indonesia..

Today...Even China would have problems expanding south..the only way is for them to expand westwards into taiwan.

the.raven SG

thai sux

FiReDuKe SG

Jialat…...SBSK and his illusions again…...

Moxie SG

Not exactly, but nice try anyway.

1stly, it was Ayutthaya, a southern-based kingdown (power rival Chiangmai ruled the north). Ayutthaya was destroyed by the Burmese in the 16th C; modern-day Thailand, inc. their present royal family, traced their direct lineage from those who drove out those conquerors.

2ndly, the Siamese claimed suzerainty, rather than overt sovereignity, over S'pore.

3rdly, it's not like S'pore presently only has a few Bugis & Orang Laut sea gypsies defending ourselves.

tvdog SG

I was told this story long ago that Thai soldiers used to call SAF soldiers training alongside them "iron man".

Why?

When the patrol hears a shot in the jungle, all the Thai soldiers will take cover immediately while the SAF soldiers will stand looking around, trying to identify where the shot came from.

SibeiSuayKia SG

are u joking? Laughing

tvdog SG

Thai people can be very murderous. Remember all the frequent incidents of Thai workers in Singapore stabbing dead other Thai workers?

Thais are cruel, ruthless and cold-blooded killers which seems to be a trait of people from that region including Cambodians, Burmese, Laotians and Vietnamese.

So their soldiers have very strong killer instincts along with good jungle fighting capabilities. And the Thais are very proud of the fact that they have never been invaded, occupied or colonised by a foreign power.

However, Thailand has a funny record in WW2.

Being no friend of western colonial powers like Britain or France during WW2, Thailand launched a full-scale attack with army and air force on French-occupied Indochina (Cambodia or Vietnam). The French were in no shape to fight and sued for peace. The Japanese (pre-Pearl Harbour) stepped in as negotiators.

In the end, the Thais withdrew and got very little for their troubles but the Japs managed to secure airbases in Vietnam. Don't ask me how, I just read this in a book.

It is from these airbases that japanese planes flew to attack the Prince of Wales and Repulse. These airbases later supported the Malayan campaign.

The Thais didn't stop there. They let the Japs land troops on Thai soil so they could launch an overland attack on Malaysia besides the seaborne assault.

Even though in Thai opinion the Brits are just another foreign aggressor no different from the Japs, their roles led to the sufferings of millions of Singaporeans, Malaysians and Allied troops under the Jap occupation.

beavan SG

oh that’s smt new

Tango1 SG

The RTA is generally good at battalion-level operations, but their capability to operate under mid-intensity conditions is suspect. The '87-89 clashes (Battle of Ban Rhomklao) along the Thai-Laotian border, exposed the weaknesses/deficiencies in RTA operations. Its even probable that the RTA has not conducted exercises above battalion-level, or even so, at a very minimal level.

Fighting a conventional war today under high-tech conditions, the largely peasent-based RTA (esp. amongst the lower echelons) would be presented with difficulties of operational capability, training and maintenance of high-tech weaponry. Very Happy