"They get something they've wanted," he said, "rather than our saying, 'We know what's good for you.' We're not a commando, let's-get-any-emotion-we-can-for-ratings network".
Most of the commandos grab any opportunity to sleep they can.
They also monitored the raid that captured one of Mr. Hussein's top aides, Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti, and were poised to alert the commandos about any "squirters," enemy fighters fleeing the scene.
For just a moment, I couldn't help imagining what my father would have said, had anyone called him -- or any of the air commandos in Burma for whom he was "operations officer" -- a warrior.
The Israeli military's raid of a Gaza-bound flotilla in international waters raised questions from abroad: who attacked whom, who was armed, and was there any legal basis for landing commandos on the ships?
It is unclear what connections, if any, the "invisible commando" has with the Ouattara camp.
"It went off as smoothly as any of our commando raids during the war," wrote one crime reporter admiringly.
Most Afghans assume, probably correctly, that they are Special Forces commandos or C.I.A. operatives; in any case, they are the most overt reminder that a war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda continues mostly out of sight.
Instead of transporting the Commandos, these boats were to engage any German shipping found in the estuary.
See articleIsrael apologised to Turkey for "any errors that could have led to loss of life" when Israeli commandos in 2010 stormed a Turkish ship that was trying to bring aid to Gaza.
He never saw any real action, but he knew many spies and commandos, and debriefed those few who made it back from missions.
