Indonesia

Indonesian
special forces soldiers drink snake blood before US Secretary of
Defense Jim Mattis.
Screenshot via
Twitter

• 
  Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis watched Indonesian
  special forces show off their survival skills.
  


• 
  Mattis is in Indonesia pushing for better military
  relations with the country.
  


• 
  The US broke ties in the 1990s when a brutal Indonesian
  dictator used special forces to kill political rivals.
  


• 
  The US is interested in Indonesia as a potential ally
  in pushing back against China's expansion into the South China
  Sea.
  

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Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis saw a rare display on a trip to
Indonesia where he sought to improve ties with the country's
historically vicious special forces.

As part of that trip, Mattis watched a demonstration by soldiers,
during which they broke bricks over their heads, walked on hot
coals, performed martial arts, rolled in broken glass, killed
live snakes, and drank their blood.

As the troops prepared the snakes, which were king cobras, one
reportedly got loose and postured as if preparing to bite Mattis,
though it was wrangled back into the fold, the Japan Times reports.

Eating snakes is actually a common military
ritual, with some US troops training in the practice to
prepare them for jungle warfare.

But Mattis was in Indonesia to repair ties with the country's
military, that came under sanction when the country's former
dictator used the special forces as a criminal organization to
brutally enforce his policies.

Currently, Indonesia's special forces are banned from training
with US forces, but Mattis may look to soften that policy after
the trip.

Many fear that Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim
population in the world, could become home to extremist groups
like ISIS as the group looks to expand beyond Iraq and Syria.

Additionally, Indonesia has proved a key figure in pushing back
on China's expansion into the South China Sea. The US may look to
fold them into a coalition of countries that resist the
unilateral militarization of the important shipping lane.

Mattis said on his trip he thought the human rights violators of
Indonesia's past had moved on from the special forces, and
stressed the need for the countries to work together. 

“No single nation resolves security challenges alone in
this world,” Mattis said, according to the Washington
Post.

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