You always hear about our American special forces training the best of soldiers of foreign armies in the latest and greatest methods of killing terrorists and insurgents.  It turns out that one of the finest killing schools in the world is in the jungles of Mizoram.  MSN has a story about our troops attending the Counter Insurgency Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS):

An Indian army commander said Thursday the two-week training in unconventional warfare at the Counter Insurgency Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) at Vairengte in Mizoram in northeastern India begins Sep 13.

“Apart from a rigorous drill on how to tackle an unconventional war or low intensity conflict, the training module would have a session of simulated anti-insurgency operations for the American soldiers,” a commander at the CIJWS told IANS requesting anonymity.

The school at Vairengte is considered as one of world’s most prestigious anti-terrorist institution with troops from several countries getting counter-insurgency training.

“The motto of this institute is to fight a guerrilla like a guerrilla,” the commander said. “The training module is non-conventional and once a soldier undergoes training here, he can face all deadly situations anywhere in the world.”

So what exactly will our American soldiers be faced with?  A quick Google search finds this article from April of last year:

US troops are being fed venomous vipers, dogs and monkeys as part of military exercises to sharpen skills in jungle combat in India’s insurgency-torn northeastern state of Mizoram.

Ummm.  Yeah.  In all seriousness though I think it would be cool to train there.  I couldn’t find any website for CIJWS, and that is probably how they like it.  I did however find this website by a reporter(?) who visited the school:

However, a school is just a school - it ain’t quite a story. Unless it has functioned as the premier and only institution of its kind in the country for 30 years - and hardly any reporter has heard of it, let alone visit it. Then, it becomes a scoop. When we got a whiff of it, our martial ears tingled; we put out feelers among our khakied friends, who said they had no clue what we were talking about.

Sure that we were being rebuffed, we became Ophelia, and brightened only after a CIJWS officer exclaimed, “How did you hear about the school? Hardly anyone in the army itself knows of us!” He immediately launched into we-are-completely-transparent-nothing-is-classified blah blah, but the point is, training in CI ops hinges on research, analysis, strategy and tactics. And therein lies the sensitive nature of this lean & mean institution.

Here is another interesting link.