I teach a Filipino Martial Art to soldiers here in Iraq. FMA is based on weapons(though unarmed capabilities are there as well)... that is, impact and edged weapons. The basic principles, if adhered to, will allow the exponent to pick up almost anything and disable or kill an assailant. Once, a soldier came up to me and asked if this was a Army combatives class; I said, no. One of my students said proudly, "We beat people up with sticks!"  She immediately put on an air of superiority and said, "Oh yeah? We use our fists." I was practicing a knife drill with one of my buddies one day, and a soldier walks by, admiring it, but then saying, "Boxing is better."This is not about whether Karate is better than Judo, or my teacher is better than your teacher... I've been involved in the martial arts for 17 years, and while I've done my share of "my teacher can beat your teacher", I've grown up since then. I am still dumbstruck by what these soldiers had to say.  This is what the "new and improved" Modern Army Combatives teaches soldiers these days?  That, somehow, an unarmed person is at an advantage against one who is armed? That it is okay to engage in fisticuffs or grappling against someone with a baseball bat or (good lord) a knife?  Look at what you have wrought, SFC Larsen... your intentions may have been good, but face it, every soldier wants to be in the UFC, not prepared for battle. No matter how rough and tumble the UFC gets, there are still rules, weight classes, and you only have to worry about one guy.Recall one of Murphy's laws of combat: If you are short of everything but the enemy, you are in combat. Combat is treachery, it is deception, it is CHEATING. It is ambushing, blind siding, KILLING the other guy before he KILLS you. There are no weight classes, no cornermen, you aren't training in just ACUs and sneakers, you are in IBAS and MICH, hell, maybe your M4 is still attached to you, and the ground is muddy.As I write this, soldiers are engaging in step aerobics... I'm not kidding. Where's the battle focus in step aerobics?Drill Sergeant in the sky, what's happened to our Army?Oh yeah... politically correct people who know all about fighting and winning a war.  Liberal parents who don't want thier kids to be toughened up in basic training. Gives new meaning to the phrase, "Kill them with kindness."

21st Century U.S. Army Combatives Field Manual PDF

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