SOCOM Is In A Prison Of Its Own Making
By Adam Linehan
on July 25, 2017
The head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Army Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, told a gathering of government officials, security experts, and journalists over the weekend that SOCOM is “anxious to finish” its mission in Afghanistan so the elite command can focus more on preparing for operations elsewhere — an idea that seems almost ludicrously hopeful in light of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ recent (and very accurate) assessment that the Afghan War has reached a stalemate and the “enemy is surging.”
Fielding questions from Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge at the eighth annual Aspen Security Forum on July 21, Thomas spoke at length — and in candid detail — about SOCOM’s outsized role in the War on Terror. The discussion was remarkable in that Thomas did not attempt to downplay the toll that 16 years of continuous warfare has exacted on the command, which quickly rose to become America’s premier fighting force in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Special operators, while renowned for their preternatural endurance, are still human — and understandably, they’re burning out.
http://taskandpurpose.com/socom-prison-making/
