I don’t know what’s more surprising, the news that General Stanley McChrystal is set to take operational control of special forces in Afghanistan, or the fact that he didn’t already have it:
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has brought most American Special Operations forces under his direct control for the first time, out of concern over continued civilian casualties and disorganization among units in the field.
“What happens is, sometimes at cross-purposes, you got one hand doing one thing and one hand doing the other, both trying to do the right thing but working without a good outcome,” General McChrystal said in an interview.
I know I’ve read something before about “unity of command.”
Oh, yeah: Here it is.
Ah, yeah, them old Principles of War. One of the reasons I didn’t go for the second two years of ROTC. They told us about the Principle of the Objective, but the .gov at the time obviously had no clue about the objective of the Viet-Nam thing. I withdrew my enthusiastic participation and took my chances with the draft lottery.
P.s. Just what exactly is the Objective, in this current “war?”
Warfare by Wiki?
No, srsly, I think there is a whole lot of pussyfooting and talking around the subject of just who we’re at war with, and what needs to be done. Gates of Vienna, hell, they’re already inside.
Something like “We have met the enemy and they are living among us” kind of understanding?
I didn’t say that and you can’t prove it, and no I never engage in hate speech nor mention hate facts.
Objective: to shape the battle so that the CIC gets reelected?
Just, you thought it, that’s enough to convict. The truth is also no defense.
I heard about unity of command once, from some dead white guy named Bonaparte.
He had it, just wasn’t clearly exercising it.
The article, if you’ve carefully read it, says it all…a carry over from the good/bad old cold war days…senior free wheeling Special Ops types on extremely hazardous night covert missions…their own chain of command to answer to…it developes unique survival skills…alas it appears the party is over for most of them…could be a mite easier to take with McChrystal in charge. Best
It doesn’t read to me like there is any change in C2, only a change in the ROE in the theater of operations. If anything is changing, it’s probably that the dotted line from CJSOTF-A to ISAF is probably turning into a solid line, as happened previously in Iraq.
There’s a lot of rice bowl in this–SOCCENT reports to CENTCOM, not ISAF, but who CJSOTF-A reports to these days, I dunno, been out of the game too long. Black SOF (they who cannot be named) has a tendency to consider White SOF (Green Berets, SEALS) second-stringers, and that’s true (relatively) in the world of gucci weapons, but it’s the White SOF that’s out there living with the Afghans day in and day out, one of the reasons I pointed out that Flynn, a guy from the dark side, was, ahem, reticent to note those capabilities which have been active in Afghanistan for 9 years now.
And don’t forget, NATO has its own SOF, deployed… somewhere.
Also, the letter of the law reads that all SOF operating in a given theater belong to (he has OPCON over) the Theater Special Operations Component. SOCCENT thus owns all SOF (including the ones that don’t exist) in Afghanistan. However, he only has one or two stars and would like to have three or four, so that’s one fight the TSOC CG will never make, not that he could ever win it. And that’s probably for the best.
Use temperance anytime you read an article like this.
“Admiral Smith confirmed all three events… invloved Special Operations forces.” But he did not confirm this writer’s take on these event. He wouldn’t because they are wrong. 27 civilians were not killed.
I would be emabarrasses by this if I was Gen Azimi:
“These special forces were not accountable to anyone in the country,” Not true.
“Whenever there was a problem with the special forces we didn’t know who to go to,” looks like someone need to work on his staff.
“it was muddled and unclear who was in charge,” and you are a General?