Nine reasons why we never sent our Special Operations Forces after al Qaeda before 9/11.

The Weekly Standard ^ | From the Jan. 26, 2004 issue | Richard H. Shultz Jr.

[Cicero]

Excellent and informed analysis.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Great post!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for writing this.

I find it interesting that the author apparently did not go back to the Days of Jimmy Carter where "We can't fight terrorists in their homes and training grounds became the defacto law of the nation!" It became the mantra of our leftist leaders and the lefty mediots.

Carter deballed our CIA and made sure that his fellow rats in the Senate would never allow the use of SPECOPS personnel to fight the Islamofascist terrorists.

Then, with the help of the NY Slimes, Washington Compost and the left wing mediots, they developed the myth/mantra of how we could never really harm Islamo terrorists. That they were impossible to find, and if found to infiltrate. That is the mantra/myth of liberals across America and the world today re Islamofascist terrorists.

The reality is that if we can find them, we can kill them. Dead terrorist leaders and Islamokazis will never harm another innocent American, Israeli or anyone else. That is the reality that has been pigeoned holed since the days of Carter.

Rummy and GW with our Spec Op warriors are proving that this Mantra of the left is wrong. They identify Islamofascist leaders and either kill them or capture them for a trip to Gitmo.

In summary, the Islamofascist terrorist leaders and their Islamokazis can be found, killed or captured by our Specop teams, when these teams are given the opportunity and good intel.

[mark502inf]

Great report--thanks for posting it.

Excellent insights on some of the reasons we did not act against the terrorists in the 90s. President Bush with Powell & Rumsfeld & Rice have turned that around.

I disagree with the Rumsfeld idea of flinging special ops forces at targets around the world from the Pentagon. We have regional commanders in charge of military ops in every part of the globe. They have the ability of pulling those ops off and doing them in a way that leverages in-place forces and alliances as well as capitalizing on the regional expertise resident in those HQs. Centralized control and attack is what we did when we attacked that aspirin plant in the Sudan. Rumsfeld's idea is the same, but with people this time instead of a missile.

The author cites the Blackhawk down incident--that is in fact a perfect example of what can happen when special ops guys work on their own and something goes wrong. And we had troops near-by that time; imagine how much worse it would have been if the support was not only clueless as to what the special ops guys were up to, but were also thousands of miles away. Unity of Command is a principle of war--regardless if the troops are conventional or specialized.

We're starting to go after these guys like we should--let's do it in the best way and that's to push the authority and resources down as close as we can to the problem.

[FRgal4u]

One word summarize the reason why - Clinton/Democrats -

When has national security the focus for the dems in the Post-JFK era? They pander to special interests like the greens, the peaceniks, the welfare queens, the gays, the abortionists on and on..except the support of our military.

[IGOTMINE]

Bump

[wildbill]

One partial solution: Get their attention. Fire the Joint Chiefs who don't support the policy directives of the civilian authority.

Set up a new command structure with the SOF forces on a par with and member of the Joint Chiefs.

Never happen, but it is cheering to think about.

[xzins]

I read this late last night on the WS website. It is a great read.

POLITICS has kept the SOF out of the clandestine fight. Absolutely Amazing.

They were created FOR the clandestine fight.

We need a politician with cajones to fix this. Let's get the bad guys on their turf.

[BOBTHENAILER]

In summary, the Islamofascist terrorist leaders and their Islamokazis can be found, killed or captured by our Specop teams, when these teams are given the opportunity and good intel.

Very nicely summarized. Thank God we have an administration that knows when to take the gloves off.

[Squantos]

I remember seeing Yassar get off aircraft parked next to our AWAC's TDY to Cairo West during Carters term. Or watching PLO eat at Pizza Hut in Al Dawah (Doha) Qatar every Tuesday night. We knew then and now who they are and where they dwell.

Clear solution is at hand when such planning and funding of attacks on CONUS and American Interests abroad consumes their thoughts, wallets and time on this earth...........Kill em .

The open reintroduction of the Christians In Action's paramilitary operations is IMHO the best medicine this nation has at it's disposal. Nothing quite like a NOC NOC who's there at Oh Early Thirty to keep the terrorists busy in their own country......versus ours.

Stay Safe !

[Herodotus]

Hmm...the impression I got from Bowden's book and the myriad of materials is that armor would not alone have rectified the problem. It's not helpful to zero it in on a single cause. The point he's making here is that the the mission creep idea of starting out something for one reason and then letting another one come in (the idea of getting Aideed, which was a far more significant instance of politicians calling the shots) complicated the mission.

[MHGinTN]

Most revealing! Great find for the FR forum.

[lentulusgracchus]

"Are you out of your mind? You're telling me that our Middle East policy is not important and that it's more important to go clean out terrorists? Don't you understand what's going on in terms of our Middle East policy? You're talking about going after terrorists backed by Iran? You just don't understand."

Methinks I can recognize Madeleine Albright's distinctive mooing even at a distance of 1300 miles and eight years.

What a load of maroons.

[Travis McGee]

Long but crucial document. War college stuff, and if it's not, then the war college is not teaching real world special operations.

[WritableSpace]

Bump!

[Godfollow]

I'll have to print this one off and read it later...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

One word summarize the reason why - Clinton/Democrats -

When has national security the focus for the dems in the Post-JFK era? They pander to special interests like the greens, the peaceniks, the welfare queens, the gays, the abortionists on and on..except the support of our military.

You nailed it !

Been exploring today and found some good stuff in the Blogosphere:

Winds of Change
Photos of Saddam

Joe's Iraq Report: 2004-01-19

Healing Iraq
Daily news and comments on the situation in post Saddam Iraq by an Iraqi dentist

THE MESOPOTAMIAN
From an Iraqi - advice to the Americans

The latter two are from Iraq I believe. on the last one be sure to scroll down to Jan 15 and read :
ATTENTION: COALITION FORCES, CPA, GC & FRIENDS PART III

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks for writing posting this.

You're welcome, Grampa Dave. (^:

[lentulusgracchus]

Let's suppose, said the former counterterrorism group member, that the president had ordered a covert strike "despite the chairman going on record as opposing it. Now, if the president orders such an operation against the best military advice of his chief military adviser, and it gets screwed up, they will blame the president who has no military experience, who was allegedly a draft dodger."

An excellent, textbook example of why people who haven't had military experience shouldn't sit in the Commander in Chief's chair......and by extension, in favor of as many citizens as possible acquiring military experience, and against women in the White House, since so vanishingly few women have served in the Armed Forces.

Let the chips fall, boys! Here is the proof of the pudding. The smartest schoolboy draft-dodger in America, when it got to gut-check time, didn't have what it took to look his generals in the eye and make the call.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the

THE MESOPOTAMIAN

Friday, December 26, 2003
ATTENTION: COALITION FORCES, CPA, GC & FRIENDS

This seems to contain part I of the Attention series. Scroll down to Dec 26, 2003.
Part II is near bottom of the section reference above in post #37.