Just when I thought the training was over

The past two weeks I have been participating in some supplementary training.  As a result of the Second Lebanon War the training regiment has been rearranged with an emphasis on open field warfare.  Apparently, the army felt that its soldiers were not under prepared for the last war and thought it necessary to devote almost the entirety of our training to wartime efforts.  Thus, leaving a rather important gap in our training - the  "peace"time training.  

The primary task of the IDF Special Forces during "peace" time, as of 2002, has been defined by "Operation Defensive Shield" (http:en/.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Defensive_Shield).  From that point on, Israeli forces started crossing the border into the West Bank and arresting terrorist in their home.  So this would be the work that we would be doing (although it is relatively quite these days and there actually isn't much work to be done).

In order to prepare for this work an additional two weeks was added to our training.  The first week was devoted entirely to a special style of Urban Warfare shooting.  Unlike open field warfare, Urban Warfare takes place at a much closer range.  Therefore, the techniques used for shooting differ greatly.  The concept of what we were learning is that close range combat requires  multiple bullets shot in rapid succession.  Over the course of the week we fired over 30,000 bullets in an effort to acclimate to the kickback of shooting 5 or 6 bullets in under 2 seconds.  I put a video on so you can see what it is like, in this video they are practicing how to fix your gun when it jams.

The second week was a little more diverse.  We spent one day practicing how to sneak around in a city without being seen.  We actually did this in Tel-Aviv and it was pretty funny.  We were a group of soldiers with full out face paint, M-16s, and night vision lurking in the shadows of a the biggest city in Israel.  You would be surprised how close you can get to people without them seeing you.  There was one couple who were literally 5 feet from me having an argument about whether or not they saw soldiers.  The woman was adamant "She saw 1...no 2...no 3 soldiers!"  And while her boyfriend was convincing her that he didn't see anyone I was laughing that she didn't see the other 5.  I have a hard time imagining this drill working anywhere in America.  I just can't think American citizens would take too kindly to soldiers sneaking around, more accurately I can't imagine them not freaking out.

The rest of the week we spent learning how to work with dogs, how to sweep a house (using paintball guns), and the specifics of how to surround a house and make an arrest.