What I learned traveling with US Special Forces in the most dangerous parts of the world
In the days following the Sept.11, 2001, attacks, American special operations forces infiltrated Afghanistan from the K2 airfield in Uzbekistan to meet up with the Northern Alliance.
Over the next two decades, as a journalist and researcher, I spent years in the battlefields of the Global War on Terrorism to observe and report on US Special Operations Forces.As the country reflects on the lessons of 25 years of war, several fundamental SOF Truths and hard-earned lessons carry great salience for today.The US defense machine has much to learn from SOF.
As I traveled with SOF units in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, I became familiar with the special operators’ shorthand for their approaches to war.Three sayings in particular unveil how these elite soldiers relied as much on savvy and wit as on brute force.
“Humans are more important than hardware,” the first SOF truth, conveys the central principle of working with local populations to develop partnership.“Use the weapon between your ears” was the admonition to think strategically, not tactically.
And “work your way out of a job” was the ultimate objective.In other words, their primary mission was to help the country build capable security forces to leave behind a lasting solution for peace and security.That last objective was one reason that President Trump was re-elected — to get the country out of forever wars.
These three sayings reveal what really make the SOF such a powerful body: Its secret sauce is imparting expertise to indigenous forces and working with other cultures to understand what would and would not create lasting security.That worked in rural parts of Afghanistan, where village-level pacts were struck and sons of tribal leaders defended their homelands.It worked in the Philippines’ southern Mindanao region, where Abu Sayyaf — a Jihadist militant group — gave way to the Bangsamoro Accord and peace.
And it worked in the late phase of the war in Iraq, where Special Forces com...