“Terry Houin can’t say what he and a small band of SEALs were doing in Africa. But as the closest operators to Somalia, they were the ones in free fall just a few hours later.”
After War Zone Scandals, Special Operators Are Curbing Deployments and Investing in Ethics Training
A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier qualifies at a stress shoot range at Ft. Carson, Colorado, Mar. 10, 2016. (U.S. Army/Sgt. Connor Mendez)
12 Apr 2021
In the world of special operations, the moral choices troops must make are definitely not black and white, Robert Mitchell, associate dean for Joint Special Operations University, acknowledged.
But in recent years, some special operations forces have pushed the envelope on gray area behavior, acting in ways that are clearly unethical or illegal, and in cases, even committing war crimes. These high-profile scandals prompted U.S. Special Operations Command to launch a major review to get at the root of the problems plaguing the SOF community.
Ending the forever war in Afghanistan
Carl Bildt
A US Navy hospital corpsman and US Marines in southern Afghanistan. (Reuters)
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Speaking in Kabul on this month’s 32nd anniversary of the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country’s president, Ashraf Ghani, made an important distinction. The civil war that devastated Afghanistan after the withdrawal was caused not by the departure of Soviet troops, but by the failure to formulate a viable plan for Afghanistan’s future. As the US considers its own exit from the country, it should heed this lesson.