CUTTING ARMY SPECIAL OPERATIONS WILL ERODE THE MILITARY’S ABILITY TO INFLUENCE THE MODERN BATTLEFIEL

[rangerrebew]

CUTTING ARMY SPECIAL OPERATIONS WILL ERODE THE MILITARY’S ABILITY TO INFLUENCE THE MODERN BATTLEFIELD
COLE LIVIERATOS
JANUARY 9, 2024
 
The U.S. Army is currently undergoing significant force structure changes as it wrestles with two major challenges. First, its current recruiting problems have reduced the number of active-duty soldiers by about 30,000 from 2021 through 2024. Second, it is trying to modernize its force structure and capabilities to confront challenges posed by China’s military. To do this, the service’s leaders have chosen to focus on capabilities most “relevant for large-scale combat operations.” As a result, Army leaders have chosen to reduce Army special operations forces, which they view as a force primarily meant for counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, by 3,000 slots.

By cutting special operations forces, the Army is making the contentious yet defensible decision to optimize for the less likely but potentially more catastrophic possibility of a large-scale war with a peer adversary. This decision assumes risk in the joint force’s ability to compete and engage in irregular warfare, which is historically more frequent than conventional wars and will be a critical component of any large-scale conflict. 

Army Special Operations Command was granted discretion to decide which parts of its formation will be eliminated and has chosen to reduce support forces like intelligence and logistics as well as civil affairs and psychological operations. These forces are amongst the smallest yet most in-demand units in special operations. The command has spared Ranger, aviation, special forces, and other special mission units. In doing so, Army Special Operations Command is assuming risk in operations to understand and influence the modern battlefield.

https://warontherocks.com/2024/01/cutting-army-special-operations-will-erode-the-militarys-ability-to-influence-the-modern-battlefield/

[rangerrebew]

So what?  It's much more important to Biden to have eco-friendly vehicles than influence the battlefield.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Wars are economic contests of attrition.

China cannot yet feed its own people without importing food.  That's why the Chi-coms are buying US agricultural resources, including Swift Meats and farmland.

The Chi-coms are dependent upon the import of other natural resources, such as energy.

The China of 2024 is a corollary of the Japan of 1938 - a rapid industrializing and militarizing nation dependent upon imports.

To secure its place as a World Power, China needs to become economically self-sufficient and no longer dependent upon imports from competing powers.

China will seek to grow their empire via economic conquest and political conquest, first.  They will seek to become economically or politically dominant in other nations to coerce them into the Chi-com sphere of influence.

Military conquest will only be used to secure resources that are conqured economically and politically, initially.

Military conquest will then be used to overtly seize strategic resources, strategic supply routes, and pre-emptively attack opponents' military resources.

China needs to secure its economic flanks before overtly challenging the West militarily.  The Chi-coms will use North Korea as a proxy and a distraction for freezing Japan's, South Korea's, and America's military resources around the Sea of Japan as the Chi-coms make inroads towards the South China Sea.