[SevenMinusOne]

but publicity, good or bad, hurts the spec ops community.

Exactly right - (and an additional fact is we usually only hear about when an Op goes bad, the other 99% are successful Ops).

[dimk]

It is really hard to believe that chopper was hit by an actual RPG round. In Somalia Black hawks operated incredibly close to the ground. QRF chopper would have been 100 times harder target.

Those guys had years to learn how to attack choppers during war vs ussr. Stinger vs Mi24 was a much easier shot, but with enough launchers and lucky/good shooter positions (shooting from above the helicopter etc) also statistics comes in. How many times they tried and failed we don't know, now one got lucky.

Israel in many cases released details of their ops through unofficial channels. People know exactly why and how Green Island was assaulted, which operator was decorated for what, how they were wounded etc. Successful high profile operations should be known to both friends and to the enemies. For example those record sniper shots made by Marine and Canadian snipers in Afghanistan, propaganda value of such things is hard to overestimate. Did you see "Enemy at the Gates", its from a novel, but Zaitsev was a real person and his kill list was published for all to see and to inspire others.