Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrino
Funny - Just gave essentially the same lecture to a couple of the young guys at the office last week. Not that we've done an indifferent job; quite the opposite, but the last 18 years have obscured the root reasons for our existence. If we're going to differentiate ourselves from the masses and preserve our future, (I think) we need to look back at our founding principles and bring them forward, evolving them and their core TTPs so they're relevant to the world we'll be asked to influence over the next 15-20 years. The other side of that coin is that we build a capability that the US Govt lacks the vision/will to employ and we keep doing "groundhog day" ad infinitum.
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Agree so many of our guys do not understand the end state we are looking for and the long term goals....Damn the metrics era
I also agree the origination of our unit in the Philippines is a valid template and we have the terminology and skills to flip the script before during and after such a situation.....everything between us the Generals and Congress comes down to communicating common language for decision makers military jargon and naming conventions creates more confusion than transgenderism.
I think first and foremost is their must be an agreed upon template of what we do i.e. are we the spawn of the Devils Brigade, the Jedburghs the OSS or the Filipino resistance? I say our roots are in the Philippines given our first BC was Volkman though Bank was a Jed and 10th Grp Commander but how many of our guys understand the similarities or value? the Devils Brigade were closer to a high speed Ranger Bn and SFOD-D and the OSS and Jeds are closer to the three letter agency in design and mission. We have different camps of belief in where are roots lie and what we should be doing. Choose the where we come from and what we are template and discard the rest as the genesis of other missions or other units.
The next thing once we understand what we are and should be doing then we must communicate the value of ready made insurgencies/counterinsurgencies and its role in preventing rogue regimes like Iran and its Quds force from running roughshod over a region as their efforts bear fruits. Generals and Politicians do not understand it the concept is not one that people easily grasp.....my father in law is a Phd in molecular Biology 3-4 Masters degrees etc....and to him his 8 years in the Marine Corps Infantry is how he views dealing with bad guys UW makes no sense to him though portions do but not the totality.....very smart people cannot grasp the UW concept whether it be the terminology that somehow gets officers promoted, the definition or how it is explained by doctrine, it makes no sense to people thanks to years of basic war movies focused around DA and media. For others to understand us we have to break down the specific missions into its parts and sell it piece by piece. Selling it to the decision makers is the idea and this is a long game because everyone of our guys have to be thoroughly trained in it and vetted...this is where our salesman will come from the Officers wearing the Green Beret and the long tab qualification.
Third we have a POTUS right now who seems to be willing to take a look at how we do business as a military.....my hunch is he would understand the need to separate UW from surgical strike minded command influence....what we do is more akin to playing chess strategy similar to the business world strategies and game theory than the checkers played by surgical strike....to play chess we cannot be under the control of checkers masters! IMO the POTUS would better grasp the concept than previous leaders that a qualification on paper does not an expert make. I think this would be an excellent time to sell the value of our concept over the capabilities and skills of surgical strike. It has to sold as invaluable preventative maintenance of U.S. vital interest regions. We would have to attach a future value and not a metrics game to the value of our true capability. To keep quality UW experts in this unit their must be incentive to be the best at UW and to do that separation of powers i.e. away from SOCOM's metric mindset and promotion preferences is the only way. We are the retirement plan of the military 30 yrs down the road not the lotto we are the annuity.
Finally to play Chess we need to recruit Chess players and let the Checkers guys go to a more fitting environment. It is hard to sell the Chess ideology with those who live and breath Checkers. We must face it serving 20 years with the likelihood of never seeing combat is a tough sell and requires careful honest recruiting, We have to sell this as a unique capability not a comparative to the top tier capability. We are not comparable to any of the other SOF units except for the MARSOC but lets face it most MARSOC are in their heart of hearts checkers guys disguised as IW experts. If are not going to play Chess and we are going to continue to chase shiny objects then I would recommend that we quit spending money on Robin Sage field problems and MOS training except for 18D and 18E replace it with SFARTAEC, SNIPER and ASOT...damn it if we are going to pretend to be shooters only then make our guys the best they can be and quit dick dancing.
BINGO I have echoed those thoughts in other threads over the years!
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