SO, ARE THEY ANY BETTER?

I went to see Lone Survivor today. This was a highly rated American film based on a real story of a Navy SEAL mission in Afghanistan that turned to custard.

The Wine Guy didn't go saying he thought it would be crap. He went to the opera last night so was still on his high horse. See:

Cosi Fan Tutte

Unfortunately he was right. It was crap.

The film started with depictions of  the Navy SEALS training. It is brutal, exacting the highest standards of endurance from the trainees - sort of like ultra commando training.
The film then tracks the same group of guys in Afghanistan on a live mission. They fuck-up basically: their ultra-modern communications fail; they make poor decisions; they set up in a bad defensive position and, they get their arses kicked by  the Taliban.

The Taliban are really Afghan hill-billies who are fitter, faster and smarter than the gung-ho, over trained, over outfitted and (initially) over confident Americans. The American's helicopters, satellite communications, radio communication with high-flying planes, sophisticated combat gear and modern weoponry were ultimately no match for old Kalashnikovs, machine guns and grenade launchers manned by the locals.

The lone survivor incidentally wasn't rescued by the US Cavalry but by some Afghanistan villagers who stood up to the Taliban because their local tradition dictated that guests (the wounded soldier they found in a stream) has to be protected. (whether this 2,000 year tradition would stretch to double bass players has yet to be proven).

What all this is leading me to though is this. In most films and television programmes with a war or military theme we are subjected to we almost always get the American 'gung-ho' marines, special forces. SEALS. - "we are the best" stuff. Video games distort history and show American 'heroes' saving the world from Nazis, Communists and all sorts of bad guys. Even good films do this. Think  Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and slightly mediocre films like Avatar and Aliens (interestingly both James Cameron films) show the 'gung-ho' marine mentality  - (but in both of these films the marines get their arses kicked. Maybe old James who is now a NZ resident doesn't like all the gung-ho stuff).

I know that most countries in the world have elite armed forces. New Zealand has the SAS which has a great reputation (an uncle of mine was a founder member). What I'd like to know though is who is best?
We have all sorts of reality TV programmes pitting everyone from fashion models to cooks against each other. Why not armed forces? There was, some years ago and maybe still running, an international competition between firefighters. Wouldn't it be good if the elite forces of the world met for combat games to see who is best. Certainly this would be better than them actually shooting at each other.