A joint special forces team moves together out of an Air Force CV-22 Osprey aircraft, Feb. 26, 2018, at Melrose Training Range, N.M., during Emerald Warrior, the largest joint and combined special operations exercise. Wikimedia
Mark Bowden, The Atlantic: American Special Ops Forces Are Everywhere
They’ve become a major military player—and maybe a substitute for strategic thinking.
Within the span of a few decades, the United States has utterly transformed its military, or at least the military that is actively fighting. This has taken place with little fanfare and little public scrutiny. But without any conscious plan, I have seen some of the evolution firsthand. One of my early books, Black Hawk Down, was about a disastrous U.S. Special Ops mission in Somalia. Another, Guests of the Ayatollah, about the Iran hostage crisis, detailed an abortive but pivotal Special Ops rescue mission. U.S. Special Operators were involved in the successful hunt for the drug lord Pablo Escobar, the subject of Killing Pablo, and they conducted the raid that ended the career of Osama bin Laden, the subject of The Finish. By seeking out dramatic military missions, I have chronicled the movement of Special Ops from the wings to center stage.
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WNU Editor: Special Forces have become a major player in U.S. foreign and military policy. IMHO there is no question about that. But is US strategic thinking now dependent on the availability of Special Forces assets? I would say that it depends on the issue and the country that is involved.
2 comments:
You don't see them deploying infantry battalions or divisions anywhere
Infantry takes and holds ground. If you do not want to hold ground, not deploying infantry reduces the targets the opposition has.
Take Somalia for instance.
We are not serious in Somalia. If they were they would cordon and search and have sufficient forces to do it. I believe that is what the British did in Malaysia along with roads dams and fortified villages. The British SAS did a lot of searching there. The insurgency was crushed. Rome pacified piracy in the Mediterranean with cordon and search tactics.
Trump never promised to do it. I think he was right. Why do it if you are going to half ass it? Trump listened to the people and he might have gone right back in. But he would have had a mandate and he would have done it big.
Joe or his seal trainers promised to have troops in Somalia doing something. Don't fix the problem. Just put it on simmer. Some of the funding and recruits for Al Shabaab is coming from America. The vaunted FBI is ding zip, zero, nada.
So why be in Somalia?
We already have a number of troops from Kenya, Ethiopian and the Somalis government. Maybe we need a few more American units. Maybe we could badger the Ethiopian for more troops so they would not be murdering Tigrayans. Maybe with the experience of combat with a big success and a little bribe in the form of equipment, Egypt would not threaten Ethiopia any more?
Maybe we could mess with China buy keeping Chinese dishing trawlers out of the Somalia's EEZ. Then some Somalis can make living fishing and have no excuse for going pirating. It would starve Al Shabaab of maybe a few funds.
Pirates of the Caliphate: Who is the Somali Kingpin Accused of Aiding Al Shabab?
The Coast Guard sailors could get a new ribbon and rightfully feel really proud. Besides no one seems to care much about drugs anymore. So might as well send 2 boats or so fighting pirates every 6 months to supplement the Navy and other navies.
But we are not serious. Well except for Joe. He is in serious adderral withdrawal after his speech last night.
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