A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Monday, February 28, 2011

Who Dares, Wins: SAS Pulls Oil Workers Out of Libya

Britain has mounted an air rescue of British oil workers from Libyan oilfields, in a mission organized by the Special Air Service (SAS), Britain's special operations elite. If we're to believe the Daily Mirror, it was organized using SAS veterans now working as security guards in the Middle East.

The SAS, whose motto, "Who Dares, Wins" seems appropriate here, is returning to the place of its birth: it came into being in the North African campaign in World War II (early SAS troops at left), raiding deep into Libya behind German and Italian lines, along with the Long Range Desert Group. Pioneers of special operations, they are now serving a much reduced Britain, but they still dare, and seem to have won again.

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