United States Defense Secretary Jim Mattis watched the rare display on a trip to Indonesia where we sought to improve ties with the country historically vicious special forces. As a part of that trip, Mattis watched the demonstration by soldiers during demonstrate their skills like broke bricks over the heads, walk on hot coals, performed martial arts, rolled in broken glass, killed the live snakes, and drunk their blood.
The group of reporters traveling with Mattis on the three-day trip to Indonesia had been told he would view a routine military demonstration at Indonesia’s armed forces headquarters.
One Indonesian soldier who wore a hood over his face used a knife to cut a cucumber that was in his colleague’s mouth. Another blindfolded man shot a balloon that was in between another soldier’s legs. One of the shots missed, but Reuters reported no one appeared to have been injured.
To the sounds of beating drums, the Indonesian soldiers performed a series of gripping martial arts techniques, breaking what appeared to be concrete bricks with their heads. They also smashed stacks of burning blocks with their hands.
Wearing a hood to blind him, one knife-wielding Indonesian soldier slashed away at a cucumber sticking out of his colleague’s mouth, coming just inches from striking his nose with the long blade.
Perhaps the highlight was a demonstration involving live snakes, which Indonesian forces brought out in bags and scattered on the ground, just feet from where Mattis was standing. That included a King Cobra, which widened its neck as it if we’re going to attack.
The soldiers then cut off the snakeheads and fed the snake blood to each other, as the crowd looked on. At least one Indonesian soldier bit a snake in half.At the end of the demonstration, to the tune of the movie“Mission Impossible,” the Indonesian forces carried out a hostage rescue operation, deploying stealthily from helicopters – with police dogs. The dogs intercepted the gunman.
