Thursday, December 18, 2014

Has Hollywood Compromised The Tactics Used By U.S. Special Forces To Islamic Extremists?

U.S. Special Forces soldiers and Afghan commandos move through an open field toward a compound while clearing Bahlozi village in the Maiwand district of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, Jan. 1, 2014. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Bertha A. Flores

Hollywood Endangers U.S. Special Forces By Revealing Tactics To Islamic Extremists -- Washington Times

Tweaks needed for hostage rescue, terrorist targeting missions with element of surprise lost

In the secretive special operations community, officials are debating whether to tweak tactics for daring and risky missions involving hostage rescue and terrorist targeting that have been compromised by years of detailed news accounts and Hollywood portrayals.

Some believe Islamic extremists have gone to school on special operations forces. The classroom is the U.S. media.

Special operations forces’ three most recent attempts to rescue American hostages failed. Last year, SEALs attempted a beach insertion to capture a terrorist leader in Somalia but were spotted and repelled. There was also the horrific loss of SEALs in a helicopter shoot-down that some family members believe was an ambush.

Read more ....

My Comment: Leaks from the White House have also not helped. But bottom line .... after recent failed rescue attempts by special forces .... the solution is now clear .... time to change tactics.

9 comments:

Hope for the West said...

If Hollywood has been putting the info out in form of media, they've been enabled by those in the SOF community who share those tactics etc. with Hollywood. The Navy SEALs' image in particular (and now Army SOF) has been used for a long time as a recruitment tool by the navy, even being featured in movies. I think the better idea is the Air Force SOF principle of "Silent Professionals".

Jay Farquharson said...

Nope.

Raid #1 on ISIS failed, because the Hostages had been dispersed, 2 months before the raid went in, that's an intel failure not an SF failure,

Raid #2 failed, because the Raiders were anticipated and locals were on the watch for the raid. Some idiot, thought that an Yemen AQ group, that had never killed a hostage, in over a decade of taking them, wouldn't notice that the neutral Tribal Mediators had been blown up in a drone strike, and that this wouldn't piss off the locals and put them onside with the AQ group.

It's just the usual flailing around for convenient excuses, for failure of tactics, strategy and policy, based in complete and utter ignorance of the region.

War News Updates Editor said...

Good point Hope for the West .... the SOF community has also revealed a lot of intel and info that maybe they should not have.

I concur with the intel failure Jay .... but the discussion (and question) is on tactics ... are these tactics out of date? I would like to believe not .... that if the intel is correct these tactics can be used in some form or variation forever. But ... like I said .... is it possible that we must now think of new tactics ... that the old ones do not work anymore. I do not know.

Jay Farquharson said...

Sorry, WNU Editor, but like many, you are confusing and conflating tactics, with strategy.

A tactic, for example, is to place a Scout/Sniper Team in an overwatch position, and use early morning/late afternoon light shadows to conceal the movements of the breach team.

A Strategy, is to decide to conduct a "on the fly" rescue mission, against an already alerted AQ group, ( mediator drone strike, one other missed raid), to try to free three hostages, ( one already scheduled to be released, one in which there were ongoing negotiations, and one a recently kidnapped "US military" member, in an area where previous US military actions have pissed off all the locals.

Strategy resides above the SOF paygrade.

War News Updates Editor said...

So your argument Jay is that the tactics that the SOF has been using for years are sound .... it is the strategy (and intel) on how to use these tactics that are now at fault?

Jay Farquharson said...

Now at fault?

The Strategy has always been hooped.

The closest the US has had to a "Strategic" win, was to pay off the Sunni Militia's not to attack them.

The tactics have always been good, that is the little victory we have. Against NATO/US/IASF/French troops, the Islamicists have lost almost all the Battles, but like in Vietnam, they are "winning" the war.

CatholicDragoon said...

The word we're all looking for is 'Complacency.' The Islamists have spent over a decade fighting as the underdog and are know good enough to evolve into field armies and rogue nations. While many of the political and military leadership in the US have become complacent in their perceived superiority, and so are slow to adapt.

Jay Farquharson said...

I'll agree to disagree with you.

Using the remmanents of the NA, and bringing the Warlords back from exile, allied with SOF and Airpower, was a tactical win,

But a strategic error, as it empowered the same people who tore Afghanistan apart.

In the GWOT/Iraq/AQ wars, we have had long strings of tactical wins, and strategic failures.

James said...

I would think that the question should be, what has not been leaked, talked about, exposed, and telegraphed. In a sense it's more of a surprise that there has been successful operations at all.