Few Commando Units in Striking Distance

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — For all the emphasis that Pentagon planners have put on Special Operations forces in a war against the network of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban government, at the moment relatively few of these secretive soldiers are within striking distance of the heart of Afghanistan, officials at the Pentagon say.

As the military's mobilization accelerated this week, a Defense Department official (Clinton Hack/or Disinforment Informent) said that "only a few dozen" members of the military's Special Operations forces had deployed into the region so far. Short of an intelligence coup disclosing Mr. bin Laden's location, that is scarcely enough to scour the caves and canyons of the country looking for him and his captains.

But an additional 500 or so members of Special Operations units will be laced among the 23,000 United States troops now landing in Egypt for a monthlong military exercise, "Bright Star," which begins next week, Pentagon officials say.

"They could easily swing over toward Afghanistan," one Pentagon official said. And other Special Operations forces will most likely deploy with many units bound for the region.

With so few of them there so far, the initial mission of these fighters has focused on the more conventional of their many specialized roles. These include scouting targets and standing by to illuminate them with laser beams that precisely guide missiles and bombs to the most important ones.

Recalling the Persian Gulf war of a decade ago, Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, said this week that the "most effective means for finding Scud missiles, Iraqi Scud missiles, was putting very brave special forces people on the ground in western Iraq."

But he conceded that their daring sometimes went to waste. "When they got there and they found targets, we didn't have the kind of integration with our air capability to make that bravery effective," Mr. Wolfowitz said.

Special Operations forces are also the most likely soldiers to carry out another strategy that Pentagon officials have spoken of: assisting resistance forces of the Northern Alliance in their campaign against the Taliban's military.

"Assisting forces that are in opposition to the government of a hostile country — now, that is a classic special forces mission," said one veteran of the Army Special Forces, the Green Berets. The hope has been both to dislodge the Taliban regime and to flush out members of Al Qaeda, the terrorist network.

And counterterrorism generally is another of the particular missions of Special Operations units. Wayne A. Downing, a retired four-star Army general who headed the United States Special Operations Command, has joined the National Security Council as the president's new director for counterterrorism.

American commandos are capable of much more than hiding for days on end and working in the dark of night to locate targets, or propping up indigenous rebels to do the fighting. These forces receive the most intense training in the military, and some of its most sophisticated radios and weapons, so they can wipe out targets on their own.

Special forces wage their corner of the war with intense and concentrated violence that can be important tactically to the broader mission, and disruptive psychologically to an enemy, current and past members of these units say.

In the words of one former Special Operations officer, "They fight fast and they fight furious, and then they get out."

They can be secretly inserted into enemy territory in pitch darkness by Pave Low and Pave Hawk helicopters that skirt the terrain. For heavier loads and longer distances, there is the Combat Talon, a modified cargo plane that needs only 750 feet of rudimentary runway to land.

So secret are the Special Operations forces' missions that their movements into and around the region are blacked out of slide presentations about the war effort shown to some of the most senior military leaders at the Pentagon.

Their importance to that effort, though, is no secret. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld has made it clear that in this campaign, "a lot of it will be Special Operations."

As the Air Force readies high- altitude food drops over Afghanistan, an operation aimed at filling the stomachs as well winning the hearts of the Afghan people and undermining the Taliban's legitimacy in their minds, special forces could stealthily search for, identify and help destroy Taliban anti-aircraft systems, whose capabilities remain an unknown, Pentagon officials say.

That mission would become even more critical if President Bush orders a sustained bombing campaign to squeeze the Taliban by attacking command posts, arms depots, airfields, training camps and storage sites for the heroin that has underwritten the Taliban, officials say.

Special Operations forces do everything from coordinating refugee relief to training foreign soldiers to reconstituting a water purification system to preparing leaflets urging surrender in dialects that few American soldiers have ever heard spoken.

There are 40,000 members of United States Special Operations units, budgeted at just over $3 billion, or about 1.3 percent of all military spending, said Col. Bill Darley, a spokesman for the Special Operations Command. (Most Special Operations personnel who work in civil affairs are in Reserve units, as are many of those trained in psychological operations.)

Units vary in size and specialty, from the top-secret Delta Force, which specializes in counterterrorism, to Navy Seal teams that specialize in coastal reconnaissance, infiltration and demolition, to the larger units of Army Rangers, perhaps the best-trained infantry in the world.

But spectacular failures still haunt these forces. There was the aborted hostage rescue in Iran in 1980. During the 1989 invasion of Panama, the forces had a disproportionate number of casualties. The disastrous attempt to kidnap a Somali warlord, Mohammed Farrah Aidid, in 1993 certainly ended public support for involvement there.

Does anyone know how long it might take to obtain a basic understanding of a foriegn language?

Can someone learn enough to operate on a primitive basis in a few weeks, for example? I have been wondering about this for some time.

The NY Slimes--when did they become an expert on the US military they so routinely denigrate. The unAmerican crowd that pens the tripe they peddle as news is clueless about what we can/cannot/will/will not do. They share much of the blame for this cowardly attack on the US. They've spent years pampering every criminal they can.

It is very satisfying to watch ole W play the NY Times and the Wash Post like a fiddle. The amount of dis-information which is being leaked and then mindlessly disseminated by the mainstream media indicates a very skillful psych-ops operation in progress. It's sweet to know that the editors of the Times know exactly how they are being used and hate it but still keep pumping out every piece of info which is fed to them.

Rule number 1. Don't argue with Travis about this. He's been there and done that.

Rule number 2. Get real. Special forces are still flesh and blood, more or less members of the human race. They are the best in the world at what they do, but they don't take down 18,000 foot mountains with one hand tied behind their backs.

If Bin Laden holes up in a cave, we can detonate enough rock and dirt to bury him forever.

Rule number 3. An 18,000 ft mountain is big - real big. A nuclear weapon will only make a dent in the side of it. All the high explosives in the world will just make a bit more rubble to bounce down the sides.

Bin Laden ain't safe. But he ain't exactly caught yet either.

The disastrous attempt to kidnap a Somali warlord, Mohammed Farrah Aidid, in 1993 certainly ended public support for involvement there.

It was only disastrous because our welfare liberal mentality made it so. It was a success like the barrage against the Tet Offensive, but noooo! some of our people with civilians got killed and somehow that was unacceptable for a people who want protection but not pay for it. Hence, when we let arabs protect our oil assets abroad against RUssia, China or even India, those arabs find it in the end easier to kill us than those abroad for the money we pay them. Bottom line is that they turn against us, and I would too, I mean how stupid!

We were not tryig to "occupy" Beirut or Mogadishu either. In Mogadishu, we were just trying to snatch Aidid's officers, THREE MILES from the Ranger/Delta compound, not 800 miles from our fleet assets.

Look, I was a specoops officer, I just am tired of the gung ho "Hoo-Ah" from folks who have NO CLUE of how comlex and difficult this might be if Osama does a good and unpredictable job of hiding with a tiny band (under 20 total) in the wilds of the Hindu Kush in one of his many prepared secret hideouts.

I don't know much about either one of those conflicts-- what I meant was turned loose to accomplish the objective in the manner they saw fit. I do know that a big, big problem with Vietnam was micro-management by civilian authorities. Of course, if the objective is set too narrowly (i.e., "get" bin Laden) than that can be a big problem as well-- a more reasonable objective might be, overthrow the Taleban, establish civil authority and order, eliminate the use of Afghanistan as an effective training and staging base for terrorism, and clean out as many of bin Laden's people as possible by whatever means necessary (from going to find them, to watching for movement and striking anything that moves, to keeping them pinned in their hideouts until they freeze, starve, or go nuts.) If the broader goals I have outlined are, in fact, our goals, can our military forces do it?

That statement couldn't be further from the truth. In Somalia, tha failure was 100% political, 100% Clinton's unwillingness to take the mission seriously, and reluctance to act.

You got that right. Bubba was chasing interns instead of paying attention to what was going on at the time. Any failure in Somalia was all Bubba's.

Richard W.

Does anyone know how long it might take to obtain a basic understanding of a foriegn language? Can someone learn enough to operate on a primitive basis in a few weeks, for example?

Good question. Defense Language Institute gives you almost a year, but you know the language inside out like a native, including hugely detailed military lingo. But we Americans are far too weak in this area. Our high schools and colleges are very weak in this. If you show up for class and are "trying" you will pass a foreign language and get the promise of no homework ever. We are not, as a nation, good with this. Our education system is all about sympathy to those who might have to really study something. Ambassadors often don't speak the language where they are stationed, which is shameful. Both Bush brothers speak Spanish, which, given their states of governership, was simply responsible. You certainly could become pretty effective in the basics in a few weeks. Especially if you really studied---total immersion, (like the night before finals). The CIA's and FBI's lack of Arabic-speaking personnel is as pathetic now as a weak military would be. This must be changed quickly.

Bush wants to hit Bin Laden and the Taliban hard and get the hell out.

Well, of course. We all want that. What (if I may be so bold to interpret for him) Travis McGee is saying is that it will not be easy. The FDNY heroes are only the first of many, many heroes that we will see die. Do not underestimate the enemy. We may not want to occupy, and we may be lucky enough to not have to, but it is a possibility.

Let's wipe out our problem. We cannot just wound the tiger like we did in Iraq. We have to kill it!

One thousand US Marines could not control a million wildmen in Beirut, not under any condition, if the wildmen were determined to snipe and bomb.

Same deal in Magadishu.

In Afghanistan, ten thousand specops troops will have their work cut out for them in a nation of 15 million the size of Texas.

With skill and luck, we may catch or kill Osama, or he could hide for avery long time Geronimo style.

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