Why is US Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg buying goats?
We don't normally ask a question like this. But as we attempt to monitor the US military's vast acquisitions of aircraft and the like, sometimes we find other things that make us curious.
We do know that the army's commandos intend to buy a whole herd of goats, or "caprines," as described in this recent solicitation.
We also have learned, courtesy of strangely knowledgeable friends and the Google search engine, that there may be a convenient explanation, and it doesn't involve a taste for North Carolina barbecue.
This seemingly credible book makes the claim that Fort Bragg has been acquiring de-bleated goats since 1979. The goats are used by the army to test a rather bizarre theory that an especially-trained soldier can kill an animal by staring at it. Really.
Now we are regretting asking the question in the first place.
Technorati tag: army
I've actually read the book mentioned above. The author describes footage he had seen of a hamster behaving oddly while being stared at. I don't think he'd seen any goat related video but he did see a picture of a soldier apparently karate chopping a goat.
Gareth