Cover of the SOF "operating concept" booklet, not online.
Posted on 03/23/2014 5:56:52 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
I just had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with a Council on Foreign Relations group at the United States Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Its commander, the famed Admiral William H. McRaven, started the briefing, followed by his staff.
I expected to learn about Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and their air force and marine counterparts. I thought I would hear about the exploits of this 67,000-strong command operating in 84 countries, maybe even about the taking down of Osama bin Laden. But that was not to be. Instead, he and the other officers talked at length about their new mission, starting with the command's motto, "You can't surge trust."
Cover of the SOF "operating concept" booklet, not online. |
The Special Operations Forces Operating Concept captures the essence of the SOF heritage as it could be – as it should be in the year 2020 and beyond. The concept moves beyond the first decade of the 21st Century, when SOF primarily supported large-scale contingency operations by conducting counterterrorism operations to find, capture, or kill our adversaries. Although of great value to the Nation, these operations were never intended to be decisive. Operating through the Global SOF Network in support of our Geographic Combatant Commanders and Chiefs of Mission, SOF now have the opportunity to achieve strategic outcomes by working with and through interagency and foreign partners to understand and influence relevant populations.
Translated into English, this says:
Special Operations Forces used to be about capturing or killing America's adversaries; its new mission is to shape public opinion.
Or, it the words of a bullet point in the Operating Concept, the goal is "Elevating SOF non-lethal skills to the same level of expertise as lethal skills." As radical a shift as this is, at least I could comprehend it. Not so the following graphic, "Strategic Appreciation - 2.0,"which was projected onto a large floor for most of our briefing and which makes no sense to me:
Comments: (1) I came away from this briefing unsure if the special operations leadership really believes this stuff or is mouthing it to distract the public from discussing its real mission. (2) If it's sincere, I worry about our future defense. (March 23, 2014)
Shark jumping isn’t just for TV shows anymore.
The communists love propaganda. It is sooo much more useful than the truth to the manuliptive and deceptive.
Looks alot like the Obamacare chart.
I take it Pipes really isn’t that familiar with the history of U.S. Special Forces or of the complaints of many oldtimers in that community that they have gotten away from their core mission of unconventional warfare and become too focused on direct action missions.
SOCOM bump!
Elections have consequences.
You are on target. This McRaven being called famed is a damn joke. DA is not going to tie up large units with G’s.
Turning JSOC into HHS, I see.
Very nice.
Like tasking NASA for Muslim Outreach.
Very consistent.
you know, this “dumbed down think” has been going on for years. I work for a large defense contractor and probably almosy 20 years ago they introduced the concept of six sigma. now, if there is anyone here that is a six sigma expert, they’ll probably defend it because it’s an easy way to draw a pay check.
but for the uninitiated, its a new way to “think”. so for example, if you’re sitting in a meeting, and you come up with an idea, you’re likely to be berated by the local six sigma expert, to the tune of “you can’t recommend that until you supply the data”. in other words, if something is painfully obvious, you can’t put it into action until you’ve sent out forms to all dept heads and get them back and track the date until you’ve wasted enough money to show you can now use the new idea to save money.
I always suspected it was invented by the same people who dumbed down our schools. now the get to do it to the military.
If he didn’t already have a job, this new version of Special Forces would be heavily recruiting John Kerry. They’ll probably also want that NASA administrator who sees his job as Muslim outreach.
Somebody needs to know how to do this. And someone needs to know how to do the commando stuff. Its two different jobs.
Beat me to it.
Oh darn, you beat me to it.
Jealous much. Damn. It’s statistics man. You want to change a process... Provide proof of how YOU think the process will be changed. Put your numbers where your mouth is. Damn...
Whoever organized and wrote the chart clearly isn’t the right person for the job. It’s clearly a jumbled mess that no person with any real or strategical planning training would compose because of its chaotic composition. It leaves little room for comprehension which is the very reason for diagramming information that has been compiled, collated, and analyzed to convert it into intelligence so that you can understand it.
Somebody needs to know how to do this.
Supposedly that was one of the prime missions of the CIA.
Maybe every Fed agency should have a subdivision working on that. NASA has been tasked with it so that makes three. The DoJ, DEA, ATF, FBI, ICE, DHS and the IRS are feeling left out to name a few.
Do they ever refer to “stakeholders”? My flesh crawls whenever I hear that word...;)
“Do they ever refer to “stakeholders”? My flesh crawls whenever I hear that word...;)”
yeah, we need to leverage our core compentencies in order to drive growth and bring value to our stakeholders.
I hope that time goes quickly and we can elect a competent commander in chief next time.
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