Just what we need right now

Army Strongly Considering 10-20% Cut To Special Ops Forces.

The Army has a serious recruiting problem. One of their solutions? Hey! Let’s cut our Special Ops Forces by 10-20%! Yes folks, that’s really what they are considering.

The Army is cutting about 3,000 troops, or about 10% from its special-operations ranks, which could include so-called trigger-pullers from the Green Beret commando units who have conducted some of the nation’s most dangerous and sensitive missions around the world, from the jungles of Vietnam to the back alleys of Baghdad.

The reductions would enable the Army to rebalance toward the large conventional ground forces needed in a potential fight in Asia. The trims in the ranks of special forces would also help the Army cope with a recruiting shortfall in a strong labor market. But opponents of the cuts, notably senior special-operations officers, have argued they could hinder training of U.S. partners, including the Ukrainian and Taiwanese militaries, and limit the elite units’ ability to respond to crises.

This is an asinine idea that will blow a significant crater in our current war fighting capabilities. Yet doing this, according to the brilliantly idiotic minds at the Pentagon will “rebalance” our forces and magically ramp up recruitment? Are You Kidding Me? 

Kenneth Tovo, a retired Army lieutenant general who led U.S. Army Special Operations Command, was asked by Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., at a Senate hearing on Wednesday about “the administration’s plans to cut 10 percent of U.S. Army Special Operations Forces” and their likely effect on the service’s ability “to provide combatant commanders with options for great power competition, counterterrorism and crisis response.”

“I think it’ll be crippling,” said Tovo, who was speaking before the Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities. “10 percent of the force is going to be a significant—…the higher end is even 20 percent.”

~Snip

“I’m told that the cuts will be most acute on SOF enablers like logistics and intelligence, but that some changes to force structure are also likely for Special Forces, civil affairs, psychological operations,” the aide said.

Why yes, it would be, WILL BE crippling to our military capabilities and readiness. WHY would cutting logistics and intelligence be on the table? If we don’t have intel or logistics, then we can’t put good people in place who can quickly move to kill a major ISIS terrorist and capture his wife!

Our history is replete with times when intelligence failed or wasn’t listened to. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are two such examples. If we don’t have a strong logistics team in place, our ability to respond quickly to a threat is hindered.

Again, why in the ever loving hell would our military consider dumping 10-20% of our Special Ops Forces in the midst of a massive recruiting crisis??

There are definitely other ways to recruit that do not include getting rid of a significant percentage of some of our best warfighters out there. One example is from this guy, who wrote a book about how to get Gen Z to step up.

Nowhere that I can find does that mean decimating our current force capabilities! Getting rid of 10-20% of our Special Ops forces would cause numerous problems within our military and with our allies.

While recognizing the strengths SOF has always displayed in combat, what truly made SOF “special” historically has been our ability to generate disproportionate strategic effects in highly complex and contested environments via small and uniquely skilled teams. Certainly, in many instances this required our forces to show incredible combat proficiency.

What is less well understood by the general public, yet something we must never forget, is not only how well we can deliver precise kinetic force, though that is certainly important; what matters most is whether we “solve the problem” our nation needs solved, and not necessarily whether the solution requires lethal action.

Logistics and intelligence are two critical factors in the effectiveness of our SOF forces, and yet they want to cut those numbers??

Oh sure, quite a few think cutting 3700 troops isn’t a problem. Except it IS. You can’t just recruit a soldier, send him through Basic and viola! Ready for Special Ops logistics or intel! It. Does. Not. Work. That. Way! At all. 

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said at the hearing, “You cannot mass-produce [special operations forces] in a crisis. And we can’t get to a point where we’re faced with a crisis and we do not have the operators that are able to step forward. So, we really do have to push back against that.”

Tovo said cuts in intelligence enablers would be “devastating.”

“We’re a force that is very much driven by our intelligence community,” he said. “And if the cuts are taken there—and that’s one of the places that the service I believe wants to take the cuts—that will be devastating. Without the intelligence capability, our operational capability is hobbled at best.”

Guess who’s on board with this idea?

 

Yes indeed, Lloyd Austin signed off on this while on the way out the door to retirement. The same guy who refuses to take ANY responsibility for the Afghanistan debacle, mandated vaccines, coddled transgender soldiers, pushes DEI issues – all of which are contributing to our recruitment problem!

We face significant threats from China, Iran, and others. Cutting our current capabilities is an incredibly bad idea and puts our national security at risk.