![]() ![]() More ambitious roles for SOF have also been devised. SOF generate cumulative material, psychological, and mortal pressure on opponents with raiding, stay-behind networks, and guerrilla operations. The true potential of SOF–which might have been better used to raise havoc in German supply depots and command and control nodes–was thus squandered. Kiras’ book, an adaptation of his PhD dissertation, argues that Allied decisionmakers misunderstood SOF in Northwest Europe WWII campaigns and wasted them on missions better suited for GPF. SOF in the last ten years face less well-equipped opponents than the Wehrmarcht and have far more powerful standoff support options available to them, but the general problem certainly remains. ![]() As the war film A Bridge Too Far graphically depicts, distributed elite light infantry without support from heavy forces do not fare well in war. Kiras warns against a belief that individual missions alone can have strategic effect as opposed to campaigns conducted in concert with general purpose forces (GPF) that maximize the relative advantages of both SOF and GPF. According to Roger Spulak, special operations are “missions to accomplish strategic objectives where the use of conventional forces would create unacceptable risks due to Clausewitzian friction.” Overcoming these risks, Spulak argues, requires a force “that directly address the ultimate source of friction through qualities that are the result of the distribution of the attributes of SOF personnel.”Īs Admiral William McRaven argues, special operations direct action missions leverage the ability of a small group of highly trained individuals to achieve initial superiority over fortresses and numerically superior enemy forces through a matrix of sound planning, training, execution, and operational security. The film depicts Special Operations Forces (SOF) engaged in counterterrorism direct action missions. This is a review-as-analytical essay, commenting not necessarily on the movie itself but the larger nexus of art, strategy, politics, and ten years of war.įirst and foremost, Act of Valor is what its makers intended it to be: an operational demonstration of a unique–but fragile–capability the United States and a few select other nations possess. Last week, I saw Act of Valor with Robert Caruso, Dan Trombly, and Alex Olesker in a packed DC cineplex. ![]()
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