How come we don’t hear more about Special Ops screwing up regular ops?
Am I forgetting some?
It seems to me that friction would be inevitable, especially when conventional forces were trying to do COIN — working with local leaders (even those who are not allies), moving slowly, carefully. And then Spec Ops busts in with midnight raids.
Yet I haven’t seen many accounts of such problems. Have you? Am I forgetting some?
It seems to me that friction would be inevitable, especially when conventional forces were trying to do COIN — working with local leaders (even those who are not allies), moving slowly, carefully. And then Spec Ops busts in with midnight raids.
Yet I haven’t seen many accounts of such problems. Have you? Am I forgetting some?
Image credit: Wapster/Flickr
More from Foreign Policy

Is Cold War Inevitable?
A new biography of George Kennan, the father of containment, raises questions about whether the old Cold War—and the emerging one with China—could have been avoided.

So You Want to Buy an Ambassadorship
The United States is the only Western government that routinely rewards mega-donors with top diplomatic posts.

Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?
Why Beijing’s foreign-policy reset will—or won’t—work out.

Turkey’s Problem Isn’t Sweden. It’s the United States.
Erdogan has focused on Stockholm’s stance toward Kurdish exile groups, but Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. support for Kurds in Syria.