United States Special Operations Forces

376 Pages·2020·1.601 MB·English

by  Tucker, Lamb

UNITED STATES SPECIAL
OPERATIONS FORCES
SECOND EDITION
DAVID TUCKER
(cid:2)
CHRISTOPHER J. LAMB
DAVID TUCKER CHRISTOPHER J. LAMB
UNITED STATES
SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES

✪
UNITED STATES
SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES
second edition
David Tucker and
Christopher J. Lamb
columbia university press
new york
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2007, 2020 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available from the Library of Congress.
978-0-231-18388-8 (cloth: alk. paper)
978-0-231-18389-5 (trade pbk.)
978-0-231-54522-8 (e-book)
LCCN: 2019021928
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover images: (top) © Staff Sgt. Trevor T. McBride /
U.S. Air Force via AP
(bottom): © Michael Christopher Brown /
Magnum Photos
Cover design: Lisa Hamm
CONTENTS
Introduction: American Special Operations Forces 1
Part I: The American Experience with Special Operations Forces
1 Special Operations Forces and Modern Warfare 13
2 History 61
Part II: Selected Case Studies
3 Somalia 109
4 High-Value Target Teams 148
5 Village Stability Operations 189
Part III: Special Operations Forces and U.S. National Security Policy
6 Special Operations Forces Roles and Missions 215
7 Special Operations Forces and the Future of Warfare 244
Conclusion: The Strategic Utility of American Special
Operations Forces 269
Appendix 1: The Evolution of Special Operations Forces
Roles and Missions 275
Appendix 2: Bibliographic Essay 285
Notes 311
Selected Bibliography 357
Index 363

UNITED STATES
SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES

introduction
American Special Operations Forces
T
he capture of Kabul in 2001 and the killing of Osama bin Laden
in 2011 were the bookends of a remarkable decade in the history of
America’s special operations forces (SOF). Indeed, these two feats of
arms may well take their place among the most famous military actions
in history. In the first, army Special Forces (SF) fought alongside and
led indigenous forces in a military campaign that forced the Taliban and
their al-Qaeda allies to surrender control of Afghanistan. Guiding bombs
with lasers and global positioning technology, while sometimes riding on
horseback, the campaign combined the most modern technology with
the most ancient technique of central Asian warfare. Using an American
idiom, President George W. Bush celebrated SF’s success by describing
their action in Afghanistan as “the first cavalry charge of the 21st cen-
tury.”1 In the second, a SOF special mission unit (SMU), a force specially
trained in conducting high-risk raids, flew into Pakistan, breached bin
Laden’s compound, which was near a Pakistani military facility, killed
him, and gathered large amounts of useful intelligence in the form of
disc drives and papers before exfiltrating without casualties.2
While remarkable, taking Kabul and killing bin Laden were not all
SOF did in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or in other conflicts and
missions in the years after 2001. SOF developed to a fine art a form of