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2022-10-12 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Oversight of Special Operations Forces Requires Better Data, Watchdog Says

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Posted by Besoeker 2022-10-12 00:00|| || Front Page|| [18 views ] Top

#1 ...Part of the problem is this: the SF units were - hands down, and no disrespect to the grunts who held down the terrain - the most effective units in the Af and Iraq. Unfortunately, that meant the demand for them increased exponentially, as did their funding and organization, all of which was classified. Put another way, a lot of what GAO was looking for never existed.

Mike

Posted by MikeKozlowski 2022-10-12 09:02|| 2022-10-12 09:02|| Front Page Top

#2 /\ All true, but for a reason. The multi-national SOF effort in both Iraq and AFG was JPEL driven. I suspect you already know what three letter agency ran the JPEL along with all intelligence inputs, priorities, and production that drove it ?

WIKI: The Joint Prioritized Effects List or JPEL is a list of individuals who coalition forces in Afghanistan try to capture or kill. The Task Force 373 is working through the list. According to the Afghan War Diary German troops listed Shirin Agha with the number 3145 and on 11 October 2010 German troops killed Agha. Coalition forces are authorized to kill or capture individuals named on the list.[1][2][3]

According to a document from the 2010 Afghan War Diary the list has 2,058 names. That list provided the intelligence basis for a pace of some 90 night-raids per month in late 2009.

With the exception of the initial phases and follow-on IED road clearing, city and village sweeps, DoD (big Army) played a supporting role.

If it didn't support the JPEL, it generally didn't foking happen.

Posted by Besoeker 2022-10-12 09:39|| 2022-10-12 09:39|| Front Page Top

#3 22 Lines Of Military Jargon That Only Service Members And Veterans Will Understand

Posted by Skidmark 2022-10-12 10:03|| 2022-10-12 10:03|| Front Page Top

#4 tactics have not changed much since Vietnam.

Posted by bman 2022-10-12 14:58|| 2022-10-12 14:58|| Front Page Top

#5 "the stick was strapped"

I don’t understand that, but I’m not meant to.

Stick

Strapped

Effectively, "an interpreter[terp] jumped with the team".

Posted by Skidmark 2022-10-12 16:45|| 2022-10-12 16:45|| Front Page Top

#6 tactics have not changed much since Vietnam.

In the First of Eight Books of Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War some mention in Chapters XV-XVI is made of asymmetric cavalry clashes. "as our men were disconcerted by the unusual mode of battle" and "In the whole of this method of fighting...standards were little suited to this kind of enemy"

It would seem that 'special operations' has a much longer history.

Posted by Skidmark 2022-10-12 17:05|| 2022-10-12 17:05|| Front Page Top

#7 Disturbing.
I can't retch thru clenched teeth.

Posted by Skidmark 2022-10-12 17:17|| 2022-10-12 17:17|| Front Page Top

#8 Oversight of SF requires being from SF.

Posted by Dron66046 2022-10-12 23:52|| 2022-10-12 23:52|| Front Page Top

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