The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Al Qaeda Reinvents the Banzai Charge
by James Dunnigan
April 2, 2006
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
March 22 terrorists attacked a police station in
Mandan, south of Baghdad. The station was not captured, but four
policemen died. The police responded by counterattacking, and captured
fifty of the attackers. As police establish themselves in Sunni Arab
towns, there is often a showdown with the local tribal or religious
leadership, as well as any terrorist groups. The terrorists often flee,
because they know that, once they show themselves, the police, with
American backup, will find and kill them. But there are fewer places
for the terrorists to run. Attacking a police station, to free your
captured buddies, is a suicidal way to operate. It's reminiscent of
Japanese tactics during World War II. American troops learned that,
when the Japanese were cornered and out of options, there would be a
last, desperate, and suicidal "Banzai" charge. Shouting "Banzai" ("Ten
Thousand Years"), the Japanese troops would come straight at the
Americans. The Japanese expected to die, but considered this kind of
attack more honorable than waiting for the Americans to blow them out
of bunkers and caves. Sometimes a Banzai charge would succeed, although
the attackers were eventually wiped out. Such has been the case for
those attacking Iraqi police stations over the last 18 months.
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