To successfully deter and confront the global insurgency threatening the world and our nation today, the U.S. military must be able to employ a balanced approach to warfare, carefully blending the full spectrum of military, para-military and civil action to achieve success. It is an approach I refer to as balanced warfare." It is the manner in which our nation's Special Operations Forces are combating terrorism today, and it is the guiding principle behind the Department of Defense's campaign plan to combat global terrorism.
Today, we find ourselves living in a new normal." The world is not going to go back to the way it was before 9/11. Our national security is threatened not only by terrorists and terrorist organizations, but also by fragile states either un—or unable to provide for the most basic needs of their people. Further, sovereignty is not what it used to be; advances in communications, transportation and global networking continue to make borders more transparent, economies more interconnected, and information available on an unprecedented scale. The effects of this globalization create stresses on underdeveloped and developing nations and societies, which in turn create regional instability and unrest...
Comments
Perhaps your right;
It is a emotional subject for me personally as I saw good men KIA who really had no business on a TT and stated that they didn't want to be there, but were there because they were assignned. It is my frustration that no screening was done, the training basic at best, and my perception is that SOF/SF forces seem content to allow this to continue. It is neglegent at best when this is allowed to happen, when it could have been prevented. I don't know if those who were KIA wouldn't have been KIA anyhow, but I do know they should not have been embedded advisors if they had no desire to be there. The article came across that way to me.
Boot
Boot, your comment is filled quite a bit with emotion and you have lost your ability to look at the article objectively. The focus of ADM Olson's article was specific to defining the environment, strategy, application of smart power (direct and indirect approaches), and the institutional and operational design to defeat the irregular threat. Granted, the article is very SOF centric - but thats ok as he is highlighting SOF's contribution to the Defense Department's overall contribution to the US National Security Strategy. At no time did ADM Olson minimalize the General Purpose Forces (GPF). The contributions that GPF have provided to the overall war effort has been significant - assisting in shaping the overall operational environment. Prior to pushing send next time - consider walking away from the computer before you push send.
sorry for the sarcasm laced label, but I really get tired of the cheerleading for themselves papers coming out of SOCOM. I mean really??!?! Your SOF and have unique skill sets for IW? When did this happen?
What I haven't seen yet is a roadmap on how GPF/SOF will integrate, what GPF must do to conduct IW etc...
What I have seen is studies and discussions where SF/SOF types want to draw the line at combat that is, well we won't send a team of GPFers into an environment that may turn hostile, that is uniquely a SF/SOF type environment and you GPFer's can't handle it. Maybe they haven't heard about these countries called Iraq and Afghanistan.
SF/SOF small teams in austere environments amongst HNSF advising them and working side by side with them...maybe you missed the NY Times article "A Young Marines Dream Job".
Can SOCOM finally get over themselves and give us poor ole GPFer's something we can run with?