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Some of your comments about freedom and the comfort zone of conventional commanders are right on. However, the open hostility implied in the article us ... used food. It's more a difference of viewpoint and purpose.

The conventional units in the field have little trouble with SF's informality... it's the rear echelon guys that cause the problem, the many loggies hanging around the rear area, who are all bummed out cause you can't shine desert boots, and shining boots, to them, is what being a soldier is.

This is exacerbated by the Army's NCO "education" system, which produces pathetic barrack lawyers who obsess about regulation minutiae, and calls them sergeants major.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

I'm not trying to imply that there is actual bad blood between conventional and SOF joes. Let me clarify a bit. Intel is my primary function, so I run into different obstacles than most operational team guys would. I don't think that, across the board, there is a problem between SOF soldiers and conventional soldiers. I spend some time touching base with my conventional counterparts every so often, and their view of SOF ranges from favorable (if somewhat jealous) to reverent. Conversely, we don't dislike or look down on them at all. We're just different parts of the same machine.

Between other organizations and chains of command, well, that's a whole different story. The friction generated between the (often misinformed or misguided) expectations of our own chain of command, the attached unit, civilian agencies and the conventional Army intel channels can be absurdly political and mercilessly petty. That DOES result in bad blood.

It may just be that intel work inherently involves more backstabbing, and that only intensifies when everyone is under pressure to produce gold out of lead. Plus, the 'barracks lawyers' of the regular Army are small time compared to the 'Johnnie Cochrane / ACLU / Mark Geragos' level legal hit men of the MI community. People who will come at you with Leavenworth in one hand, and your genitalia in the other, if they suspect (no matter how baseless) that you've been cutting corners or not following the absolute letter of the law.

So, yes, I am a little bitter. I know a lot of guys that have given untold amounts of effort and done some truly amazing work, only to see it disappear into a cloud of infighting and politics. I suppose this may not be an across the board phenomenon, but I when I hear of similar stories, I don't discount them right away.