No,but if you were about touch down at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City and a group of the most skilled knife fighters the world has ever seen unfastened their seat belts and headed for the cockpit you might have been in trouble if you were enjoying the morning sun at Bellas Artes Palace!
My ranch sits a mile from Fort Bowie and I meet many visitors who have an interest in the Apache Wars.On three occasions I've meet Military guys that all have the same thing in common, a fascination and sort of love for Geronimo. The idea that Seal team 6 were insulting Geronimo by using his name in the operation that killed Osama is just political correct nonsense.
"I have killed many Mexicans; I do not know how many, for frequently I did not count them. Some of them were not worth counting. It has been a long time since then, but still I have no love for the Mexicans. With me they were always treacherous and malicious.”—Geronimo, 1905
Geronimo hated Mexico for a very good reason: (from wiki)
On March 6, 1858, a company of 400 Mexican soldiers from Sonora led by Colonel José María Carrasco attacked Goyahkla's camp outside Janos while the men were in town trading. Among those killed were Goyahkla's wife, his children, and his mother. His chief, Mangas Coloradas, sent him to Cochise's band for help in revenge against the Mexicans. Allegedly it was during this incident that the name Geronimo came about. This appellation stemmed from a battle in which, ignoring a deadly hail of bullets, he repeatedly attacked Mexican soldiers with a knife, causing them to utter appeals to Saint Jerome ("Jeronimo!"). Americans heard this and thought his name was Geronimo, and the name stuck.[3]
The comparison to rich kid/couch warrior Osama is the real insult to the great Apache warrior.Geronimo had no rank but was followed by many because he displayed supernatural powers,healed bullet wounds and could not be tracked.
The Apaches had a truce with the United states that lasted for many years because they recognized the US as the enemy of there enemy Mexico.The lasted until gold miners entering Apache territory ended the peace.One mile from my ranch in the 1860's 11 of them were tied to Yuccas ,tortured and burnt to death.
The point of my diary is two fold:
The Military admires the Apaches (hell they say "Geronimo" when they jump from planes)
Geronimo would have used any technique available to save him people...but Mexico was his main enemy