Gap In Reasoning
By Mitch Berg
There was good news and rejoicing; the SEALS continued their winning streak, rescuing an American and Danish hostage in Somalia.
But buried in the good news is a sign of the Obama Administraion’s myopia.
The Navy SEAL operation that freed two Western hostages in Somalia is representative of the Obama administration’s pledge to build a smaller, more agile military force that can carry out surgical counterterrorist strikes to cripple an enemy.
That’s a strategy much preferred to the land invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan that have cost so much American blood and treasure over the past decade. The contrast to a full-bore invasion is stark: A small, daring team storms a pirate encampment on a near-moonless night, kills nine kidnappers and whisks the hostages to safety.
It all sounds good. And so far, it is.
Here’s where the logic breaks down:
Special operations forces, trained for such clandestine missions, have become a more prominent tool in the military’s kit since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that led to the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The administration is expected to announce Thursday that it will invest even more heavily in that capability in coming years.
Cool, except that creating special operations troops is not just a matter of “Investment”. You can’t create them with money. You have to start with troops – traditionally people from the infantry and airborne, although they come from all corners of all services today – who learn the basics of being a soldier (or sailor, or airman, or Marine). Then, the ones that have the urge to try will audition – and, mostly, fail – less than half of those who try to get into the Rangers succeed; the even-more-selective elite-of-the-elite units like the US Special Forces (“Green Berets”), SEALs and “Detlas” are vastly more selective; from6-12% of those who try out make the cut over a training-and-selection regimen that runs two solid years and change…
…and starts with people who are already proficient at soldiering; you don’t enlist to be a SEAL or a Green Beret or a Delta; you make your bones as a highly-competent infantryman or tanker or gunners mate or helicopter mechanic or paratrooper or Ranger or combat engineer first; to get into “Delta”, one usually starts the selection process as a highly-regarded, supremely fit NCO, a fairly senior sergeant with the beginnings of a solid career, before even volunteering for the brutally-exclusive selection process.
And in hearing the Obama Administration’s plan, I get the impression He thinks that you create SEALs and Deltas and Green Berets and Pararescue Jumpers by throwing a lot of money at an underemployed Georgetown Public Policy grad.
January 26th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Maybe he’s confusing Jack Ryan with John Clarke.
January 26th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
There are also going to be failures. Highly publicized and embarrassing. Operation Eagle Claw in Iran. The Blackhawk Down incident in Somalia.
It was nice, I guess, that President Obama referred in such positive terms to our Armed Services in his speech. I wondered, after he got done talking about how he had withdrawn the last troops from Iraq, where General Petraeus was seated? I don’t recall getting a glimpse of him during the highly orchestrated close ups of VIPs in attendance.
“I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.” was what Obama told MSNBC in 2007. If anybody had doubts, he personally grilled Petraeus in hearings on 9/11/2007. The video is there for anyone to see.
Anybody want to bet the over/under on how many times Obama will mention he got Bin Laden between now and next November? And there is still time to leak OBL’s death pictures.
January 26th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Der Fearless O-Leader gets to do a victory happy-dance. Nothing like getting lucky with soldiers trained under BOOOOOOSH.
January 26th, 2012 at 2:31 pm
The whole concept of a meritocracy and personal accomplishment is anathema to The One. Watch for diversity standards to allow in the less fit.
January 26th, 2012 at 3:14 pm
“you don’t enlist to be a SEAL or a Green Beret or a Delta”
You don’t even apply to get into those units, they come and find you.
The only way a heavy reliance on spec ops units will work is if we have incredible intel to supply the teams before they hit the target, and that means more money for CIA.
January 26th, 2012 at 4:58 pm
The whole concept of a meritocracy and personal accomplishment is anathema to The One. Watch for diversity standards to allow in the less fit.
Night Writer wins the prize!
Once any position in society is seen as offering an advantage, there is a very strong impulse to make this position open to every grievance group, even if by doing so the characteristics of the group are mangled so it no longer signals any advantage.
Merely requiring an IQ of 110 eliminates about 75% of the population from an occupation, and of course IQ is not spread evenly through what we might choose to call “cohesive population groups”.
January 26th, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Another Peace Dividend – war over, won’t be another, disband the military.
Oh, but we won’t let Iran have the bomb, no matter what.
What, you think you can slide a SEAL team into Persia and whisk away the cannister, ending the threat while proving the capabilities of hot women in forward combat roles? Dude, that was a MOVIE, not real life!
January 26th, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Y’know, Nate, it’s always been the case that nations de-mob in times of peace, often foolishly.
Yet the good guys seem to win more often than otherwise.
Germany and japan spent most of the 30’s building up for a global conflict. The US, Britain, and even Russia did not. They did the opposite. Yet the allies won WW2. After ’42, it was just a matter of time.
I do technical work for a living and it is still astonishing to me how quickly the US went from a near isolationist nation to the greatest war power known by man. Within days of Pearl Harbor the War Department met with Walt Disney — Disney! A cartoon maker, for God’s sake! — to talk about using animators and movies in the war effort. The other side of that coin is that the Census Bureau, also within days of Pearl Harbor, went to FDR on their own initiative with all the data FDR needed to intern the Issei and Nissei West of the Mississippi.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:43 pm
You are all so silly! GolfDick, Dave Tool, Night Rider. Obama made the decision to violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and clean up the mess for your draft-dodging hero, “President” Shrub. Obama whacked bin Laden and it kills you wing jobs.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:55 pm
AC, you do remember that whole “draft dodger” story was debunked and basically cost Dan Rather his job. And the only reason Obama got him is because he continued to follow Bush’s policies. Besides Bin Laden wouldn’t have even been around to help plan 9/11 if BJ Billy Boy had pulled the trigger back instead of getting his winkie whacked and lying about it under oath, in 1996 when he had Bin Laden in his FUCKING SIGHTS.
January 26th, 2012 at 9:12 pm
Haha! 1996? Guess you’re a big history buff, Ben Dover. More recently, in 2011, the Commander-in-Chief, Barack Hussein Obama, ordered elite U.S. troops to raid bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout, put a bullet in his brain, fly his lifeless body to an American carrier and dump it overboard, like Big Pussy from the Sopranos. Obama had bin Laden in his FUCKING SIGHTS and he pulled the trigger, you silly wingnut.
Oh, and tea parties are for little girls and their dollies. Just sayin’.
January 26th, 2012 at 9:18 pm
I love how libs like Angry are so bloodthirsty when a lib is in the Oval, but otherwise hate anything to do with the military. That love keeps me warm on the cold nights protecting Angryclown’s right to exercise free speech to impugn me.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:05 pm
You are pitiful, AC.
I met a drunk once who claimed to be a fighter ace. His eyes couldn’t point in the same direction. Was that your dad?
January 26th, 2012 at 10:56 pm
I guess I missed the part of Obama’s bio where he joined the army.
Like I said, you are pitiful, Angry Clown.
January 27th, 2012 at 6:25 am
“Well, as I say, we haven’t heard much from him. And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.”
Is that the Bush policy Obama continued following, Ben, or are you thinking of a different one?
January 27th, 2012 at 7:37 am
never forget: to the left, all politics is personal.
kill bin laden and you win, all else is forgotten, the troops come home on Bush’s schedule, Gitmo remains open and we can issue lettres de cache for those Americans we don’t bother to have whacked.
because bin laden is dead. really. believe us. and this birth certificate is real, too. really. and these books really were written by the author. and those sealed court records really leaked by accident. really. just ask rahm.
January 27th, 2012 at 8:33 am
StuffWhitePeopleLikeClown has point here. President Incompetent knows how to do one thing – order people to drop the hammer on America’s real and imagined enemies (and the poor souls who happen to be near them). Drone stirkes, Spec Op teams – even the team(s) that whacked the Iranian nuke scientist(s) – Old Barry knows how to deploy his assets. The fact that he has offered little if any legal justification for all this killing would trouble a proper minded conformist like AC if this were Shrub or Darth Cheney sanctioning it. But then, Barry’s a Democrat and killing people of color has a long and storied history in the party of Bull Conner.
Hmmm, come to think of it – based on his skin tone as he sat behind the President at the SOTU the other night, John Boehner may want to have an aide keep an eye on the sky. Of course by the time you see the drone or the C-130, you’re already dead.
January 27th, 2012 at 8:42 am
I’m glad OBL is dead, the world is a better place as a result. AC completely ignored my statement about how he COULD have been killed 15 years ago if Bill Clinton wasn’t so worried about some minor collateral damage.
I love how libs like Angry are so bloodthirsty when a lib is in the Oval, but otherwise hate anything to do with the military. That love keeps me warm on the cold nights protecting Angryclown’s right to exercise free speech to impugn me.
Dave don’t forget, dissent is the highest form of patriotism, unless a democrat is president
January 27th, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Angry Clown can’t construct and maintain an argument, Ben. He’s tried. Epic fails, because he can’t think other than in terms of cliche’d propaganda and snark.
Sometimes it’s fun to watch.
January 27th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
I agree its like watching a car crash, your disgusted and appalled but cannot look away.
January 27th, 2012 at 4:15 pm
Yeah, Terry, this is a regular Oxford Union over here.
Angryclown doesn’t argue with you kooks cause your brains don’t work properly. Angryclown is simply here to mock, for his own entertainment.
January 27th, 2012 at 4:24 pm
If you don’t stop it, ac, you’ll go blind.
January 28th, 2012 at 9:40 am
Angryclown doesn’t argue with you kooks cause your brains don’t work properly.
And of course, it’s universally accepted that the best person to determine proper brain function is a Mets fan.
January 29th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
I think angryclown is trying to provide a rhetorical interpretation of the post title. Next, he will interpret the same in dance. Go angryclown!