Whether Ba'athist, common thug or terrorist, an insurgent has just made a terribly stupid mistake:

Iraqi gunmen shot dead a Nepalese Gurkha security officer in an ambush in central Basra Sunday, a spokesman for southern Iraq's British-run administration told Reuters.

The dead man, who worked for the private security contractor Global Security, was in a vehicle that had been delivering mail for the United Nations. Nepalese Gurkha soldiers who have retired from service in the British army are widely employed by security firms in Iraq.

Security firms, yes - for those retired. What about Gurkhas in active service? Back in October of 2001, before the Taliban had their crops watered with bright yellow bomblets, Victorino Matus enthusiastically suggested that the British "unleash the Gurkhas." And for good reason:

Mere mention of the Gurkhas strikes fear and awe in the hearts of many. As one retired Gurkha officer explained to the Los Angeles Times, "When they're ready to go into battle, their eyes turn red. Then they keep coming. They can never be stopped." Indeed, having fought alongside Great Britain for almost 200 years, the Gurkhas are known throughout the world as legendary soldiers. Their motto: "It's better to die than be a coward."

The legend dates to 1814, when the East India Company, which oversaw the subcontinent under the auspices of the British Empire, went to war against the kingdom of Nepal after repeated raids by Gurkha tribes into Bengal and Bihar. A year later, the boundary dispute was settled and a peace treaty was ratified. But the British went further. Impressed by the Nepalese warriors, they asked them to volunteer for the East India Company. And so, in 1815, the Regiment of Gurkhas was born.

The Second World War saw a record 112,000 Gurkhas fighting alongside the British in North Africa, Syria, Italy, and in the brutal Burma campaign, which resulted in over 40,000 Gurkha casualties. Colonel David Horsford, who fought with them in Burma, once said that "when the Gurkhas ran out of hand grenades, they spent 20 minutes throwing stones at the Japanese troops." Major Charles Heyman, who served with the Gurkhas more recently in Borneo and is currently the editor of Jane's World Armies, notes that "the Japanese were terrified of them."

Gurkhas are not exactly the sort of culturally invested soldier anyone would want to add to their list of belligerents. Who do you think would come out standing - some half-literate Fedeyeen brawler or these fellows:

People making Iraqi reconstruction miserable had better pray for Gurkha magnanimity and the fact that Britain hasn't unleashed them. The only good news for Iraqi insurgents to come of a retribution from this dead man's comrades is that the insurgents would be chopped into ground round by the best.