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Iraq
In Iraq, a Marine's best friend is a bada$$ dog with 42 teeth
2008-05-23
Looks sorta like a German Shepherd. Until he smiles. And then you better hope that's a smile on his face if he's looking at you!
Although getting bitten or attacked by their partners is an occupational hazard, Marines on the al Asad airbase northwest of Baghdad say theirs is the most coveted job in the military.

After all, they're paired up with what Westerners— although not all Muslims— consider man's best friend. This sprawling base's K-9 teams, which consist of one dog and one Marine, are a mainstay in Iraq's once restive Sunni Muslim Anbar province.

More than four dozen teams are working in the province with dogs that are trained to attack and subdue detainees and track insurgents. Nowadays, the dogs are used primarily to detect explosives, either on or off a leash and as much as 500 feet from their handlers.

"Nobody had ever utilized dogs in a real combat offensive since Vietnam," said Staff Sgt. Joseph Evans , of the Provost Marshals Office at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, based at Twenty Nine Palms, Calif. "A lot of the knowledge and a lot of the know-how has slipped away through time, so we really had to reinvent the application of our jobs on the fly."
Posted by:gorb

#17  JohnQC, you must live in a tough, tough town if the local cops are using Belgian Malinois...
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2008-05-23 21:49  

#16  barbara: "The references by Roman writers to the 'canes pugnaces' of Britain suggest a dog of a large and heavy type. Oppian says the fighting dog had light brown eyes, truncated muzzle, loose skin above the brows, a broad back, great stature, and muscular legs."

"A Roman Officer (L. Procurator Cynegii), was stationed in Winchester and responsible for selecting these dogs, which were exported to Rome for contests in the amphitheatre and for integration into the military as war dogs."

Modern Mastiff breeds have a peak weight of about 175lbs. Pugnaces Britanniae may have weighed over 200lbs.

According to one Roman historian, four such dogs were needed to best a lion.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-05-23 17:23  

#15  I googled "Pugnaces Britanniae" to see what I could find. Natch, wikipedia was the first hit, and I followed the link to an article about a Greek war dog -- Mollossus. When I was exiting, I noticed the other google hits and was amused since the breed is extinct -- "The best place to find Pugnaces Britanniae puppies on the web." "A community of Pugnaces Britanniae owners." "The place to find images and illustrations of Pugnaces Britanniae." "Find Pugnaces Britanniae breeders." It's nice to be reminded how much utter BS there is out there on the 'net.
Posted by: Tibor   2008-05-23 17:03  

#14  Gert the Muzzies have been known to use dogs for chemical weapons test.

I'd like to see these dogs let loose at the Minneapolis airport. Those taxicab drivers would convert to Christianity in mid-bite.
Posted by: Icerigger   2008-05-23 16:56  

#13  "a smaller descendant of the breed is the Mastiff"

Holy crap, 'moose! If a small pony mastiff is smaller, I'd hate to think what size that Roman dog was.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-05-23 16:26  

#12  If a Muslim is licked by a dog, they have to clean the spot 7 times. However, they don't exterminate dogs like they do pigs.
Posted by: Gerthudion Thrirong5858   2008-05-23 15:46  

#11  Two suggestions "Great Dane"
(Shorthair, hot climate)
Irish Wolfhound
(Long Hair, Cold Climate)
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2008-05-23 15:07  

#10  The one thing that keeps us in business is that these dogs don't know that we can't do what they do," Staff Sgt. Joseph Evans said. "If they ever figure out the truth of the game, they'll never work for us again."

Sorry Staff Sgt. Evans but you are wrong! [unless you said it in jest]

Dawgs will do all the dangerous stuff that their handler's will do and then some!
Posted by: RD   2008-05-23 12:30  

#9  Adopting a US Military Working Dog
Posted by: ed   2008-05-23 12:23  

#8  They are adopted out, often to their former handlers. To get one, you must be trained to handle these dogs.
Posted by: ed   2008-05-23 12:16  

#7  The Marines are already in Afghanistan, which has plenty of bombs and bad people, Rambler. Who knows where they'll go from there -- but most assuredly bombs and bad people will be part of the local environment. ;-) Besides, our Armed Forces have figured out a lot of things as a result of the mistakes of Viet Nam.
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-05-23 12:15  

#6  I hope that after their service is done, these dogs are treated better than the dogs we used in Viet Nam. IIRC, when we left Viet Nam, we put the dogs down - even though their handlers begged to be allowed to take them home. The dogs were considered to be "surplus war material" and were "disposed" of.
Posted by: Rambler in California   2008-05-23 11:58  

#5  Interesting article - but my jaw dropped when I hit the nonsense that tu and JFM note. While the wires do seem to be demoralized by the situation in Iraq - the other day I read all the way through an AP dispatch, something I haven't done for ages, and marveled at how the slug paragraphs that used to be uniformly distorted and negative now are straightforward and recognize the huge changes.

But let's not forget the special contribution made by Iraqis in all this - they've been quote machines for the most idiotic anti-US nonsense since '03. This is a gem - since when have Iraqis "lost their rights?". Uh, that would be, GAINED their rights, but remain affected by a security situation created mostly by the same idiots who made the place a prison under the old regime, a security situation that, uh - makes use of bomb dogs extremely helpful for everyone.

Seems to be an Arab thing. Not universal by any means, including inside Iraq of course, but that region does produce the most consistent supply of idiocy for us here at the 'burg to fisk and annotate.
Posted by: Verlaine   2008-05-23 11:53  

#4  
Some Iraqis, however, resent the high priority the military gives its dogs.

"Iraqi citizens have lost all their rights, but dogs have rights?" said Wafa Dawood , who's searched whenever she enters Baghdad's Green Zone, the fortified space


Ah, the good old times when the master race had the right to gass the Kurds.
Posted by: JFM   2008-05-23 11:19  

#3  The local police here often use Belgian Malinois in the K-9 corps. Anonymoose, I recall reading somewhere that the Romans also used Rottweilers as war dogs.
Posted by: JohnQC   2008-05-23 10:48  

#2  And the inevitable McClatchy Spin...

Some Iraqis, however, resent the high priority the military gives its dogs.

"Iraqi citizens have lost all their rights, but dogs have rights?" said Wafa Dawood , who's searched whenever she enters Baghdad's Green Zone, the fortified space where U.S. and Iraqi officials live and work. Nasreen Rahman said that having dogs search her is humiliating. "It's like I'm a terrorist or I've done something wrong," she said.

She, too, found irony in the fact that the military's dogs have more rights than Iraqi citizens. "This is our country, this is our land, and we are the people of this land," she said. "But the dogs are treated better than us."
Posted by: tu3031   2008-05-23 10:15  

#1  I am surprised that the US Army has never tried to recreate the Roman war dog, Pugnaces Britanniae, which is extinct. They were wiped out because they were too dangerous a weapon. However, a smaller descendant of the breed is the Mastiff.

Makes you wonder what an armored Pentagon specs dog would look like.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-05-23 09:59  

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