Time magazine says, "At any given moment, 8,000 of the country’s most elite forces, including Navy SEALs, Army Delta Force, Army Special Forces and others, are operating around the globe.  In 2001, that number was 2,900. In November 2017, service members were deployed to 143 countries, or nearly three-quarters of the nations in the world, according to data provided by U.S. Special Operations Command, which runs the units."

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According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), "an analysis of the resources devoted to U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) found that the number of authorized special operations military positions increased from about 42,800 in fiscal year (FY) 2001 to about 62,800 in FY 2014, which includes combat and support personnel.  Even with this growth, special operations military positions constituted less than 3 percent of the military services’ FY14 total authorized force levels."

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U.S. military strategy has decidedly moved from “shock and awe” to more targeted strikes using drones, cruise missiles and special operations forces (capture/kill missions).  Without question, strategies like targeted killing have produced real results including the death of Ilyas Kashmiri, commander of al-Qaeda’s Pakistan operation, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, al-Qaeda’s top operational planner, Anwar al-Awlaki, a top member of al-Qaeda believed to be responsible for organizing multiple attacks against the United States, Mohammed Emwazi (aka Jihadi John), and Nasser al-Wahishi, the top leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and several of his senior lieutenants.  In January 2019, a strike in the Marib Province of Yemen killed Jamal al-Badawi, one of the suspected plotters of the al-Qaeda bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole (in 2000, 17 American sailors were killed and 39 wounded when suicide bombers attacked the ship in Yemen).  In April 2019, a U.S. airstrike killed Abdulhakim Dhuqub, the deputy leader of the Islamic State group, in the Bari region of northeastern Somalia.  Not to mention the biggest success of all...the daring Navy SEAL raid that finally got Osama bin Laden.

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This strategy has not only killed individuals, it has destroyed entire networks – like the systematic killing of cyber recruiters and computer hackers who American officials called the "Raqqa 12" or "The Legion."  Breaking this terrorist group was a huge victory.  In 2015, the efforts of the Islamic State to attract people to their self-proclaimed caliphate and to engage in worldwide violence had gotten out of control.  James B. Comey, then the Director of the FBI, said of that time:  "I’ve got to tell you, the FBI was strapped.  We were following or attempting to follow, to cover electronically with court orders, or to cover physically dozens and dozens and dozens of people who we assessed were on the cusp of violence.  I was asked on Capitol Hill, 'Do you have enough people?' And the answer was, 'I don't if this continues.'  We were pulling, at that time, people off surveillance in criminal cases of all kinds and counterintelligence cases to help us deal with this explosion in people who were seeking meaning in this sick, misguided way and moving towards violence."  A 2015 report from George Washington University backs that assessment up:  "While not as large as in many other Western countries, ISIS-related mobilization in the United States has been unprecedented.  As of the fall of 2015, U.S. authorities speak of some 250 Americans who have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria/Iraq to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and 900 active investigations against ISIS sympathizers in all 50 states (read the entire report here)." 

 

The Legion was largely behind this increased mobilization.  Using multiple languages, the group used a vast web of social media accounts and encrypted messaging apps to spread Islamic State propaganda, entice thousands to come to Islamic State's self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq, and recruit and direct Islamic State sympathizers to violence.  In the end, the leader of this group, Junaid Hussain, was killed by American drones over eastern Syria.  And not a moment too soon.

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That said, the GAO has issued a warning that we must pay attention to:  "The average number of deployed special operations forces (SOF) has tripled since 2001, and the pace of these deployments is not expected to decrease.  DOD and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and its service component commands have recognized the strains these deployments have placed on the force, such as increased suicide rates and effects on readiness and retention, and have set goals to limit deployments and get better information about the length and frequency of deployments.  However, setting goals and obtaining better information may not solve the underlying problem – the high demand for SOF.

 

To ease the strain on SOF, the department may have to reexamine how it is meeting operational demands. The Joint Staff is in the best position to assess whether conventional forces could do more to alleviate the high demands on SOF.  However, DOD has not formally assessed opportunities to transfer or share certain activities between SOF and conventional forces since 2003, and DOD’s current validation process is largely an administrative exercise that does not validate whether some requests for SOF could be met with conventional forces. These gaps are not consistent with DOD doctrine, which says that SOF should be employed for high-priority operations and not to conduct operations where conventional forces could be used to achieve the same objectives. Moreover, the current force-allocation process may miss opportunities to take advantage of the growth in conventional forces with SOF-like skills. Unless the department evaluates force requests with a goal of balancing the workload across the larger force, the high pace of SOF deployments is likely to continue."  Read the entire report here.

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Evidence:

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W.J. Hennigan.  "The New American Way of War."  Time.  30 Nov 2017

Sarah Kreps and Miles McCain.  "On Drone Strikes And Congressional Oversight."  Modern War Institute at West Point.  24 Aug 2017

"Out Of The Shadows Recommendations To Advance Transparency In The Use of Lethal Force."  Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and Sana'a
   Center for Strategic Studies.  June 2017

Joseph A. Ouma, Lt Col, USAF, MC, FS; Wayne L. Chappelle, Psy.D., ABPP; and Amber Salinas, M.A.  "Facets of Occupational Burnout Among U.S. Air
   Force Active Duty And National Guard/Reserve MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper Operations."  Air Force Research Laboratory.  June 2011

United States.  White House.  "Summary of 2016 Information Regarding United States Counterterrorism Strikes Outside Areas of Active Hostilities." 

"Drone Warfare."  The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.  29 Dec 2018  

James B. Comey, Director Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Using Intelligence to Disrupt National Security Threats."  Intelligence in Defense of the Homeland
   Symposium, Austin, Texas.  23 Mar 2017

Lorenzo Vidino and Seamus Hughes.  "ISIS in America: From Retweets To Raqqa."  Program on Extremism, George Washington University.  December 2015.

United States.  Government Accountability Office.  "Special Operations Forces:  Opportunities Exist to Improve Transparency of Funding and Assess Potential
   to Lessen Some Deployments."  July 2015

 

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