Nine reasons why we never sent our Special Operations Forces after al Qaeda before 9/11.

The Weekly Standard ^ | From the Jan. 26, 2004 issue | Richard H. Shultz Jr.

[blackie]

Nine reasons why we never sent our Special Operations Forces ~ Bump!

[river rat]

Bumped, for reading after my "honey do" chores...
Semper Fi

[blackie]

Gotta take care of those "honey do's" :) ~ I see that you live in the SF Bay Area.

I lived there from '49 (when I was discharged from the Navy) until '90 when I moved to Eugene, OR.

Molon Labe.

[Prodigal Son]

Politicians denied armor support to the forces, and they were creamed.

Depends how you look at it. I think they kicked a lot of ass that day. In fact, a fellow I went through basic with was on that mission and he is quoted in the book as saying after the run out of the city 'don't feel sorry for us, you ought to feel sorry for them (the Somalis) because we kicked ass'. He was shot in the back not too long before he said that as well.

That mission was considered a disaster because of the numbers lost when America was no longer used to losing troops. They accomplished their objectives that day though on a very trying mission- no armor would've kept those Black Hawks from being shot down.

I don't think the Rangers got creamed that day. I know this a popular way to look at it but I don't agree with it.

[FreeAtlanta]

When President Clinton began asking about special operations, one former senior official recounted, "those options were discussed, but never got anywhere. The Joint Staff would say, 'That's cowboy Hollywood stuff.' The president was intimidated because these guys come in with all those medals, [and] the White House took the 'stay away from SOF options' advice of the generals."

What the John F'n Kerry! The prez was intimidated! What a leader....not! If Clinton really wanted his paper mandates to go through, he would have fired more generals and re-orged the dead wood. He was risk adverse as much as any of the brass.

[Grampa Dave]

If CNN talking heads can find these Islamofascists, and they buy a pizza from Pizza Hut.

Our spec ops guys can find them and kill them as you clearly noted in your reply.

"Clear solution is at hand when such planning and funding of attacks on CONUS and American Interests abroad consumes their thoughts, wallets and time on this earth...........Kill em .

"The open reintroduction of the Christians In Action's paramilitary operations is IMHO the best medicine this nation has at it's disposal. Nothing quite like a NOC NOC who's there at Oh Early Thirty to keep the terrorists busy in their own country......versus ours.


Your Christians in Action got me for a moment. :)

Knock! Knock!

Who's there!

Kandy Gram fro Mr Raghead Islamofascist!

[Grampa Dave]

See Squantos clear cut way to handle these scumbags in his reply #30.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Ping for later.

Thanks for adding me to your ping list.

Do you ever sleep? I'll have to finish this later.

I want to save this for my liberal family members to read. They seem to think Clinton was just OK at his worst. I'll be looking for that Ollie North book as well.

Clinton's destruction of the military should be a criminal offense.

[Squantos]

LOL.....BTW ....That was NOC NOC not Knock Knock.....:o)

Stay Safe !

[subterfuge]

"--Rumsfeld laments that progress has been slow and the Defense Department has not "yet made truly bold moves" in fighting al Qaeda. "

Interesting, but I scrolled down to the punchline here. I hope this is just a smoke-screen but I doubt it.

[BOBTHENAILER]

As al Qaeda regroups and deploys to new battlefields in Iraq and elsewhere, our special mission units--the Delta boys, the SEALs, and the rest--remain on the shelf. It's time to take them off.

If anyone can overcome the "showstopper" inertia, I believe Rumsfeld can.

Beautiful post, thanks.

[BOBTHENAILER]

The open reintroduction of the Christians In Action's paramilitary operations is IMHO the best medicine this nation has at it's disposal. Nothing quite like a NOC NOC who's there at Oh Early Thirty to keep the terrorists busy in their own country......versus ours.

Very clear cut, very doable and I hope it is being very quietly done.

[BOBTHENAILER]

They were hurt and humiliated by the images of the tyrant’s humiliation while the majority of Iraqis would have liked to see him torn to pieces and thrown to hungry dogs and that would not have satiated even a small part of their hunger for revenge against this direct Son of Satan.

Great stuff from that Mesopotamian site, thanks a million.

[mark502inf]

That mission was considered a disaster because of the numbers lost when America was no longer used to losing troops. They accomplished their objectives that day though on a very trying mission- no armor would've kept those Black Hawks from being shot down.

Exactly right.

However, if the extraction of the force and downed blackhawks had gone quicker, there would have been significatly fewer casualties.

There was plenty of armor (Pak, Malaysian, Italian, Kuwaiti/UAE), thousands of troops (Paki, U.S. QRF)and plenty of attack helicopters (Italian Mangusta & U.S. QRF Cobras) available in Mogadishu. Since June, the U.S. QRF had completed numerous no-notice and pre-planned operations. The QRF always included contingency planning and exchange of liaison elements with allied elements. Allied armored units were always included as either part of the plan or immediately put on stand-by and in some cases immediately staged forward with attached liaison officers monitoring command freqs.

In contrast, the special ops leaders failed to conduct more than the most rudimentary coordination with the U.S. QRF and did nothing at all with the allied forces. As a result, when things went brown, the QRF and allies had to go from a standing start--where are they? what route are they using? how do we communicate? fire control measures? enemy situation? etc etc.

The best soldiers in the world were let down by their own leaders. It would have been nice to have the armor--we asked for it the first time in July--always better to own the asset you need, but with a little more thinking and planning and coordinating and a little less hubris and arrogance, the combat power needed to help was right around the corner.

There's a principle of war called unity of command and some old advice about never underestimating your enemy--both were disregarded.

[AdmSmith]

Why do you think that the generals are against SOF warfare;

there is an old saying that the generals always fights the last war...

Risk aversion is the name of the game

[Prodigal Son]

I tell ya what. I agree with the overall assessment- Sir.

And please note, I use Sir as a mark of respect. I have grown used to the fact that you are an officer and I realize we think along different lines.

But for me, I see a lot of errors being made at all levels of the command. For instance, the topping up of canteens and the wearing of the back plate of the personal body armor.

To me, I can understand- as an enlisted man- how these things happen. But, also as an EM, I realize that the little gaps in leadership is where the problems are magnified.

It is convenient for us to blame Clinton. But Clinton didnt' tell those guys not to fill their canteens.

Personally, I see the mission as a success. PR-wise, no. But they accomplished what they set out to do and did it under very adverse circumstances. For me, it's a little bit personal because I bunked next to the guy in basic that made the 'we kicked ass' comment. You can only blame your commanders so much. This soldier, even after having been shot, still saw the mission as a success.

I think the entire mission could have been better arranged. But at the end of the day, the guys on the ground are still the ones responsible for making do with the situtation they've been handed. I think Task Force Ranger aquitted itself well.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Thanks for pinging me to this. I'll work on an intelligent contribution between now and bed time.

"The Pentagon way to treat terrorism against Pentagon assets abroad was to cast it as a force protection issue."

That gripes the hell out me. The French fortress troops in the Maginot Line had great force protection and what did it get them?.

General Hugh Shelton, a former commander of the Special Operations Command, considered the use of SOF for counterterrorism less than anyone when he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs. "It got to the point," he said, where "the uniforms had become the suits, they were more the bureaucrats than the civilians."

What an indictment.

[El Gato]

Specifically, I wondered why had we created these superbly trained Special Operations Forces to fight terrorists, but had never used them for their primary mission

Maybe it wasn't really their primary mission after all?

[mark502inf]

I think the entire mission could have been better arranged. But at the end of the day, the guys on the ground are still the ones responsible for making do with the situtation they've been handed. I think Task Force Ranger aquitted itself well.

Those three lines are the best wrap-up I've ever read about that operation.