YOU WOULDN’T WANT to be a defender of Saddam’s regime right about now. Not only is the country teeming with coalition regulars, but also a vast and deadly array of the world’s elite special forces. We’re not just talking about the Green Berets. There’s the Delta Force, Navy SEALs, and the Nightstalkers. And don’t forget Australia’s Tactical Assault Group (TAG), Poland’s GROM, and of course the British SAS and the Gurkhas.

For some, like the GROM (“thunder” in Polish) commandos, it is history in the making. This is their first time in Iraq and thus far they have helped secure Umm Qasr and are advancing towards Baghdad (if not there already). Yet for others, it is a matter of “been there, done that.” Such is the case for the Gurkhas, those Nepalese warriors who have been serving with the British military since 1815 and whose glorious past I’ve covered before.