The Growing Role Of U.S. Special Forces In The Middle East

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to commanders and coalition representatives during a visit to U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, U.S., February 6, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Fritz Lodge, Cipher Brief: U.S. Special Operations Forces’ Changing Mission in the Middle East

Despite former President Barack Obama’s efforts to cut U.S. military commitments in the Middle East, events quickly drew his Administration back into the region. Civil war in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and, particularly, ISIS’s 2014 expansion into Iraq combined to keep Washington militarily involved the region.

The nature of this involvement has changed significantly, though. Rather than commit regular troops, the U.S. has increasingly relied on elite special operations forces (SOF) to accomplish its goals. In Syria alone, SOF deployments have grown steadily from roughly 300 in early 2016 to over 700 today, and reports suggest further increases as the Trump Administration ramps up its anti-ISIS strategy.

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WNU Editor: I expect this role to expand under the Trump administration.

Hat tip Fred from Good Shit for this link.

Are U.S. Special Forces Spread Too Thin?

Popular Mechanics: Are the Special Forces Stretched Too Thin?

As the shock-and-awe of conventional warfare has given way to the unpredictable carnage of terrorism, much of the job of keeping America safe has fallen to the military's most elite soldiers. Delta Force. Green Berets. Navy SEALs. The special operators. But with new threats every day and the men stretched thin, can this new strategy last?

On his last flight home, three months before his death, Joshua Wheeler tore through a copy of D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. It was the only book he could find in English at a store where he was stationed, near Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Wheeler was a master sergeant in the Army, a former Ranger, and a member of Delta Force since 2004. He was the recipient of eleven Bronze Star medals—four of them with the letter V, signifying valor in combat. This was his fourteenth deployment to either Iraq or Afghanistan. As he sat on the plane back to North Carolina, he read a hundred-year-old novel about a struggling London artist.

It was one of the things his wife, Ashley, loved most about Josh—his appetite for knowledge. "He would read whatever he could get his hands on," she says. They were married for two years, and in that time Josh had read more books than she could count. He especially loved history and anything related to international travel—anything that might help him know the world better. He kept a pocket dictionary in his car so he could look up new words at stoplights.

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WNU Editor: My must read post for today.

Why Is The White House Always Talking About Secret Raids?

Thomas Cieslak/USASOC/Flickr

Jacob Siegel, Daily Beast: Why Can't the White House Shut Up About Secret Raids?

When it comes to ninja raids on ISIS commanders, crowing about the victory or shutting up about it both have pros and cons.

Anyone paying attention to the escalating war against ISIS took notice last week when the White House announced that a first-of-its-kind special operations mission inside Syria had killed one of the group’s commanders. ISIS members certainly took note. So did U.S. military and intelligence veterans who questioned the wisdom of announcing the clandestine mission less than 24 hours after military helicopters lifted out of Syria.

The raid, which official accounts depict as a daring mission and tactical success, was announced one day after ISIS forces began an offensive on the Iraqi city of Ramadi. Taking control of Ramadi marks the jihadi army’s capstone victory since capturing Mosul last summer. In that light, the decision to go public with the mission, while Ramadi was falling, was taken by some observers as a response to mounting criticisms that U.S. policy was failing to contain ISIS’s advances.

WNU Editor: One words explains why the White House is always talking about secret raids .... that word is "politics".

A Look At America's Special Forces

The US Military's Secret Military -- Nick Turse, Al Jazeera

Special US commandos are deployed in about 75 countries around the world - and that number is expected to grow.

Somewhere on this planet a US commando is carrying out a mission. Now, say that 70 times and you're done ... for the day. Without the knowledge of much of the general American public, a secret force within the US military is undertaking operations in a majority of the world's countries. This Pentagon power elite is waging a global war whose size and scope has generally been ignored by the mainstream media, and deserves further attention.

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My Comment: Nick Turse did his homework in this commentary/posting. Read it all.