A Brief and Glorious History of America’s Canine Warriors
Military dogs like the one made famous by the raid in Syria have a long pedigree
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi likely died with the sound of one of America’s most fearsome warriors still ringing in his ears.
In the aftermath of the Saturday night raid on al-Baghdadi’s compound in Syria’s northeastern Idlib province, U.S. officials revealed that it was a military working dog that pursued the elusive terror kingpin into the dead-end subterranean tunnel where he ignited his suicide vest, killing himself and three children he used as human shields. Of the U.S.’s elite forces who conducted the raid, only the dog was injured.
That a military working dog was involved in the raid is unsurprising: since 9/11, Man’s Best Friend has become an increasingly critical element of the Global War on Terror. And as of Monday, the Unites States’ new favorite Good Boy — reportedly a female Belgian Malinois, the same breed as Cairo, the dog that accompanied Navy SEALs on the mission that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 — had already returned to duty downrange. (Surprisingly, the dog’s name remains classified, though reports suggest her name is Conan.)
