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A rose by any other name...

Reading thru the 'Sticky' 'Special Forces - a primer' trying to gain a better understanding of the SF mission.

One of the 7 primary SF missions is...

Quote:

Foreign internal defense
is the participation by civilian and military agencies of a government in any of the action programs taken by another government to free and protect its society from subversion, lawlessness, and insurgency. The primary SF mission in this interagency activity is to organize, train, advise, and assist host nation military and paramilitary forces.

One of the collateral missions is...

Quote:

Security assistance
is a group of programs authorized by the Foreign Assistance Act, the Arms Export Control Act, or other related U.S. statutes. The primary SF role is to provide mobile training teams and other training assistance. Public law prohibits personnel providing security assistance from performing combat duties.

How do these two missions really differ? They seem very similar from the blurb description.
Different legislative origin?
Different initiation point (US initiated, Host Nation initiated)?
Different strategic environments, low level counter insurgency type assistance vs full blown conflict assistance?

Thank you in advance

Scimitar

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scimitar (Post 190177)

Reading thru the 'Sticky' 'Special Forces - a primer' trying to gain a better understanding of the SF mission.

One of the 7 primary SF missions is...

One of the collateral missions is...

How do these two missions really differ? They seem very similar from the blurb description.
Different legislative origin?
Different initiation point (US initiated, Host Nation initiated)?
Different strategic environments, low level counter insurgency type assistance vs more full blown conflict?

Thank you in advance

Scimitar

What is the last sentence of the SA definition, Grasshopper?

TR

A Group of programs vs doing it.

Edited to add - TR, there is a whole bunch of you 80's 7th Group guys here. :D

Quote:

Public law prohibits personnel providing security assistance from performing combat duties.

So an FID mission focus can move from a 'training focus' into a 'assisting in combat situations' focus, where as a SA mission is legislatively prohibited to?

Scimitar

+ 1 ...TR

Quote:

Public law prohibits.....

The words or wording used in defining missions are always associated with the legalities involved.

Thanks for the clarification gentlemen,

Scimitar

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete (Post 190183)

A Group of programs vs doing it.

Edited to add - TR, there is a whole bunch of you 80's 7th Group guys here. :D

What are you tring to say Pete? I did extra duty for that crossin...land nav error already. I'm invoking the double jeopardy prohibition!