Should we use our special operations troops as assassins? Is it right, or even smart?

Summary: As we learn the details about the raid by US special operations forces on bin Laden’s home, we should reflect on how we have used our elite troops since 9/11. Years of dark deeds with bad outcomes show a people on the road to failure. Closing our eyes while we fantasize makes the ride more enjoyable, but not the end.  {2nd of 2 posts today.}

“I’ll be the good guy.  You be the American special ops assassin.”
— Children at play around the world.

Contents

1. Destroying the brand.
2. The tip of our spear.
3. Consequences.
4. Other posts in this series.
5. For More Information.

(1)  Destroying the brand

Every first year MBA student knows that a company’s brand is among its most valuable assets. So it goes for nations as well, where brands attack allies and generate foes. WWII created the brand that we think of as America. But we’re creating a new brand for America that will influence our grand strategy for generations to come.

The CIA has long had a dark reputation overseas, overthrowing democratically elected governments that dare to oppose America. It installed tyrants. But the doers of these dark deeds was compartmentalized, it’s deeds somewhat concealed.

The bin Laden raid shows a next step in the formation of a new face for America as our finest soldiers indelibly stain their reputations by becoming assassins, striking from the night (much as America’s technology becomes Skynet — drones run by cowards that kill from cushy seats on the other side of the globe).

The occasional hit might be forgiven or overlooked.  But as the Romans said, Dosis facit venenum.  It is the dose that makes the poison.  Too many hits and our special ops forces might as well adopt “America’s Sword and Shield” as their motto.  If the KGB will lend it to us.

(2)  The tip of our spear

“It’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.”
— District Attorney Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins.

In many ways our Special Operations forces are the best we have: brave, talented, and dedicated men (and perhaps soon women). They make sacrifices for us on a scale that nobody would do for just money. In that sense they are heroes. But that does not mean that we have them doing heroic deeds. People are judged by what they do as much as who they are and why they serve.

In The Story of Philosophy historian and philosopher Will Durant summarized Aristotle’s writings as “we are what we repeatedly do.”  We increasingly use our Special Operations Forces (SOF) as storm troopers and Gestapo-like enforcers of US foreign policy. Heavily armed SOF teams burst into peoples’ homes at night to kill and kidnap. They train tyrants’ secret police in the methods of torture and oppression (see School of the America’s Watch and its Wikipedia entry). What does that tell us — and other nations — about America?

Such dark deeds may be effective (though post-WWII history says otherwise). Doing such deeds is often dangerous. But they are not heroic in any usual sense of the word.  We can loudly shout “hero hero hero” to commemorate their deeds. Perhaps that will convince ourselves, but will not impress our allies. But our deeds will inflame our foes, and recruit more to their causes.

(3)  Consequences

“Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.”
— Attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894).

We require our soldiers to obey a chain of command that extends up to elected officials at the top. The responsibility for their deeds lies on our hands, not on those of our soldiers following orders (that’s a subject for another day).  Through elections every two years we collectively acknowledge and take as our own the deeds done in our name. Our passivity in holding the reins of government not only excuses nothing, it indicts us for negligence and irresponsibility.

I believe if we continue on this path our special operations forces will be seen as villains, as is the CIA today. Ultimately the US too will be judged by the means used to enforce our policies, not just as the policies themselves. We pride ourselves on being the exceptional nation, the exceptional City on a Hill of Matthew 5:14), the one those on the Mayflower hoped to build. The world might hold us to the standard we set for ourselves, and which we have for long boasted about — and see us as just more global gangsters.

We destroy our brand in exchange for nothing, since these methods have repeatedly failed for us and scores of other nations Mao brought 4GW to maturing during WWII. Generations of counterinsurgency experts study past failures (e.g., intently watching The Battle of Algiers), then repeat these errors (see links below for details). It’s a combination of tactical success and strategic failure that feels strong but can bring down the most powerful Empires.

Empires often earn their fall through the harsh logic of the Nature’s God evoked in the Declaration of Independence.

My power proceeds from my reputation, and my reputation from the victories I have won. My power would fall if I were not to support it with more glory and more victories. Conquest has made me what I am; only conquest can maintain me.

Friendship is only a word; I love nobody … I know perfectly well I have no real friends. As long as I remain what I am, I shall have as many as I need so far as the appearance goes. Let the weak whimper, that’s their business, but for me, give me no sentiment. I must be firm, have a stout heart, or else leave on one side war and government.

—  From The Corsican: A Diary of Napoleon’s Life in His Own Words by R. M. Johnson (1910). To update it for our views, I substituted “weak” for “women” and “I” for “men”.

(4)  Other posts in this series.

1. The most useful news story of 2015: the truth about the bin Laden hit.
2. The day after Hersh: rebuttals & more evidence about the bin Laden hit.
3. The first rule of American war is not to believe what we’re told.
4. The debate about Hersh’s revelations reveals more than his article.

(5)  For More Information

If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about assassination, about special operations forces, and especially these…

1. The military takes us back to the future. To Vietnam, again and again.. 14 March 2013
2. Expanding the size and scope of our Special Operations Forces, an alternative to learning from our failed wars.
3. “SAS kill up to 8 jihadis each day, as allies prepare to wipe IS off the map.” Bold words we’ve heard before.
4. Who overthrew the Taliban: Special Forces’ guns or CIA’s cash?