Camp Combat

screen shot/Luca Locatelli for the New York Times

For four days last spring, 32 teams from 17 countries and the Palestinian Territories competed in the fifth annual Warrior Competition at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center in the Jordanian desert. Between contests like Hostage Rescue, they listened to speeches, watched promotional videos ("All this cool stuff, and we can't do any of it."), had tea and carrot cake, checked out the vendors, attended a mixer, and, of course, sat around telling stories (An Iraqi had offered to help one U.S. combatant, A., find the men who killed Saddam. According to A., the conversation went like this: Iraqi: “I know this guy. Give me a gun and a car, and I will kill him!” A.: “Dude, I hear you. And it sounds like a good idea to me on so many levels. But my government will put me in jail.”) and drinking rum-and-Cokes (story, video, slideshow): http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/magazine/sleep-away-camp-for-postmodern-cowboys.html?hpw&_r=0
   P.S., The Chinese won.