The point about the majority of psyop and civil affairs units being in the National Guard (and vastly undermanned) is missed a lot of the time.
SOCOM (Special Operations Command) owns those units, and with the Clinton cutbacks didn't want to have to spend so much on them, and have to support the most expensive troops (SF, CAG/Delta, Rangers) as well. Honestly the conventional Army should be subordinate to SOCOM in this conflict as far as I am concerned. We're still spending millions on planes and making rangers hump 20 year old metal frame rucks. What little CA and Psyop we have on the active duty side are great, professional, and very knowledgeable in their unit's area of operations (language, culture, politics) the NG guys mean well but haven't got the budget or time to meet the level of training to do that job well. With NG SF, LRS (oh for the glory days) and infantry you get a lot of prior service types to keep the blood supply and training current. This isn't true with pysop and civil affairs, as they have such a small active duty pool top begin with. > -----Original Message----- > From: Jerry Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 12:40 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Today's Patraeus: Wow. > > Nope. They are wrong. > > At the sharp point of the stick, it is about killing. Fast. And > brutally. Shock and awe as they say. > > Basic soldiers are not policemen, they are not public works engineers, > they are not nannies or babysitters. They are there to break things. > > "Hearts and minds" is for a different group to worry about. Soldiers > are _not_ ambassadors. People with guns should not be doing that sort > of work. People _surrounded_ by people with guns should be. > > Unfortunately, we only have one foreign power tool. All of our civil > engineers and policemen are organized in the National Guard. And our > few non-military assets (politicians and ambassadors, media and > business) have been poorly used in these conflicts. So we use the same > hammer for every job. > > > On 9/14/07, Judah McAuley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Loathe wrote: > > > I was an enlisted airborne infantryman for 8 years and 3 > deployments. I > > > spent 2 1/2 years in a special purpose unit. > > > > > > I it really does all boil down to killing at that level. > > > > There are good people in the military trying to change that mindset. > > Hearts and minds, my friend. Killing will always be part of the job, > I > > agree. At least a willingness and readiness for it. The only way we > win > > in counter insurgency though is if we get the people on our side. And > > killing tends to do the opposite of that. Take a look at the Army's > new > > Counter Insurgency manual. I haven't had time to go through a lot of > it, > > but it seems to a good start at changing the rules of engagement to > try > > and make our on the ground soliders into ambassadors there to help > the > > locals instead of scary guys with guns. > > > > That's a good thing. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Get the answers you are looking for on the ColdFusion Labs Forum direct from active programmers and developers. http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/categories.cfm?forumid-72&catid=648 Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:242420 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
