And we're joined, I'm delighted to say, by Major General Patrick Cordingley who commanded the Desert Rats in the first Gulf War.

BBC: NEWS | Programmes | Breakfast with Frost | Sir David Frost interviewed Patrick Cockburn and Major General Patrick Cordingley

The Black Watch first fought in Iraq in April 2003 as part of the 7th Armoured Brigade, which led the Desert Rats' attack on Basra, the country's second city.

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The Sun said the unidentified soldier was serving in the 1st battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers -- part of the Desert Rats -- in southern Iraq at the time of the alleged events.

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Major General Patrick Cordingley, commander of the Desert Rats in the first Gulf War and chairman of the appeal, said he had not met anybody who had not been moved by a visit to the arboretum, which is based in Alrewas.

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To be sure, the rally held two blocks from the World Trade Center was not a decisive defeat of the enemy like that dealt by the storied British "Desert Rats" to Hitler's Afrika Korps in November 1942.

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After extremely rare desert rainstorms, the lazy rats will tunnel furiously toward other colonies, looking for female mole rats willing to provide them with infrequent workers of their own.

NPR: Mole-Rats, Ants Making Science Headlines