[Team Sergeant]

Lord knows I’m not one of these fancy terrorism “experts” but I have worked with people that were. I’m not going to sit and become an armchair quarter back when I don’t have current intel to draw conclusions upon. That said I do know that “Counter-Terrorism” is in our in our list of Special Forces “TASKS” and is a Special Forces doctrinal mission. I’m not aware of any other unclassified unit besides the Navy SEALS that has the task of counter-terrorism in their charter or listed as a doctrinal mission.

Special Forces units perform five doctrinal missions: Foreign Internal Defense, Unconventional Warfare, Special Reconnaissance, Direct Action and Counter-Terrorism. These missions make Special Forces unique in the U.S. military, because it is employed throughout the three stages of the operational continuum: peacetime, conflict and war.

Counterterrorism.
Counterterrorism includes the full range of offensive measures to prevent, deter, and respond to terrorism. This chapter, however, addresses only those actions taken to terminate an incident or to apprehend individuals responsible for a terrorist act. Other counterterrorism measures--preemption, intervention, or retaliation with specialized forces operating under direction of the NCA--have the characteristics of strikes or raids. FM 100-20
There’s a reason Special Forces soldiers (and SEALS) put the fear of allah into terrorists and the same reason there’s been a bounty on our heads in the major conflicts we’ve been involved in, we are trained and equipped to hunt and kill terrorists, period. Now if I were the regional commander and my staff told me we need to reduce/terminate the terrorism threat who else are they going to turn to?

“Direct action and man-hunting have long been the preserve — indeed, the raison d’être — of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and its associated units: the Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (aka Delta Force), SEAL Team 6 (aka Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DevGru), the 75th Ranger Regiment and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), among others. Direct action is also one of Army Special Forces’ “seven principal missions.”

I don’t agree with this line of thought for a number of reasons most of which I will not discuss on a public board. It remains a fact that Counter-Terrorism is still a Special Forces task and when called upon we can and will accomplish that task as well as any unit in the US military. Hell, our soldiers already over-threw Afghanistan. Are there more countries in need of a Special Forces attitude adjustment? I’m sure there are but currently none on the radar. So we turn to our task list and prioritize our “to do” list. If that list has “terminate terrorists” so be it. It that upsets other units, so be it.

Team Sergeant