Poor training and a culture of risk-taking led to the deadly Oct. 4 ambush near Tongo Tongo, Niger, according to officials familiar with a Pentagon report compiled in the wake of the ambush that left four U.S. and four Nigerien soldiers dead.
Military officials familiar with the 6,000-page report described its findings to the Wall Street Journal. The report included recommendations from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to improve training and the chain of command for future operations.
Ok,first of all,we need to get a couple of things straight,the first one being if you eliminate risk-takers,you completely eliminate the infantry,the armor,the airborne,and most especially,the Rangers and Special Forces.
You will also never again win a war. EVER.
Secondly,NONE of the 4 US troops killed in that clusterbleep were actual Special Forces soldiers. They were wearing berets because they were ASSIGNED TO SF support companies,NOT because they were SF-Qualified. Would you send an infantryman off to diagnose and fix your landline and router problems at a communications center? Of course you wouldn't. Nor should you send a soldier assigned to a support unit that has zero infantry training other than "this is the end of your gun that the bullets comes out of" basic stuff.
You HAVE to give those guys props for having the stones to try,but whoever ordered them to go on that mission needs to be court-martialed and sent to a military prison before being dishonorably discharged. A commander has two prime functions,one is to accomplish his missions,and the other is to look out for his troops, and sending support troops off on an infantry patrol where they are even expected to control and lead 3rd world untrained soldiers can ONLY end in grief.
I am serious about this being a criminal act. Those guys were destined to die the instant they said "Yessir,yessir,3 bag full,sir!" They never had a chance,and their commander,who has a MINIMUM of 15-20 experience with infantry units of one type or another HAD to have understood that.
Not that "Big Army" really gives a rabid rats ass about 4 lower-ranking enlisted swine they didn't know getting killed. Big Army is getting wood over yet one more grab to take control of SF units so they can "Reel them in and attach them to conventional units". One leg General in VN took it upon himself to take over command of a SF A-team in his Area of Operations,and them and their yard foot soldiers be his personal recon teams. They said "No thank you,go away",and he hit the ceiling. Westmorland had to fly up from Saigon and have a private conversation with him to get him to back off. Generals just ain't used to Captains or E-7's telling them "No",and walking away.
General Abrams,who took over after Westmorland left was one of those asshats,but even he had to recognize that SF had a specific mission and needed to be left alone. He never came to like it,but he did come to understand it.
Think of conventional Generals as CEO's (which is what they really are) who see minions working downstream from Corporate Headquarters that they want to draft to work for them in order to promote his greater glory,and you ain't far off. Conventional Generals have spent their entire adult lives wearing red and marching in a straight line. They are probably the most anal creatures on the planet,and they absolutely HATE "different".
Unfortunately the ones in charge now need to learn that lesson,but they never will because they think they "own" everybody in their AO that wears a uniform,and they just ain't going to be happy until that is a reality. So this is the soapbox they are going to jump on and start screaming "Me,ME,THOSE PEOPLE SHOULD BELONG TO ME!" because they would enhance his command and he could take credit for anything good they do. Which would be very little because the first thing he would do would be to assign one of his conventional officers as the commanding officer of each detachment.
Did I ever mention that I HATE the freaking conventional army and the dunderheads that run it?
