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04-14-2011, 06:47 AM | #11 |
EQ-Viper
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 4,343
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Quote:
Interesting - thanks for the insight. Are you saying that the reality of what U.S. special forces are looking for has changed along with public perception?
.... "Special forces" has traditionally been used about unconventional warfare units, but now that counterinsurgency and "hearts and minds" operations are becoming part of the job description for regular infantry, I'm not sure the distinction is that clear anymore. Now, with the GWOT still in full effect and pretty much an open sanction on terrorists the world over, there's a reduced need for that type of low-level proxy fighting, hence the seeming shift in public and institutional perception about what SF are supposed to be doing. |
04-14-2011, 11:15 AM | #12 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,586
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Yeah, that's a good point. WWII era special operations are yet another animal, a lot of small unit raiding behind enemy lines.
It's interesting reading books about the SAS - I'm thinking of authors like Andy McNab and Chris Ryan, who were both with the Regiment in the early 90s. They portray the SAS as a very different kind of unit than the stereotypical US unit - more like a group of quirky unconventional individuals (one SAS operator was a butterfly collector), perhaps a little like the Cold War era Green Berets. I'm not sure how much the SAS has changed in the last 20 years, but I am sure that different countries have very different military cultures within their respective special operations units. |
04-14-2011, 12:05 PM | #13 |
Merkin 4 the weekend!
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Sac-BR0-mento, California
Posts: 2,303
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Restrepo is a really good documentary. It's been labeled as one of the best afghan war documentaries. It's definitely worth watching.
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04-15-2011, 05:44 PM | #14 |
EQ-Viper
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 4,343
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I've been meaning to watch Restrepo. Heard all sorts of good things about it. Also, not a film documentary, but I heartily recommend "Generation Kill" (the book, not the HBO series, of which I know nothing about). It's an amazing work of embedded journalism (the writer spent several weeks in 2003 with the First Recon Battalion), and really sheds some light on what happened on the ground during the early days of the Iraq invasion. It's also pretty funny, too (both in the LOL way, and in a dark, morbid humour kind of way).
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04-15-2011, 05:52 PM | #15 |
I Ride with Claymore!!!
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Alexandria, Virginia
Posts: 6,821
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It's excellent. I watched it the other night. Fantastic.
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Why aren't there more Joes from the Deep South? And would it kill Hasbro to give us a Marine Corps Officer? |
04-15-2011, 05:55 PM | #16 |
EQ-Viper
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 4,343
|
Quote:
It's interesting reading books about the SAS - I'm thinking of authors like Andy McNab and Chris Ryan, who were both with the Regiment in the early 90s. They portray the SAS as a very different kind of unit than the stereotypical US unit - more like a group of quirky unconventional individuals (one SAS operator was a butterfly collector), perhaps a little like the Cold War era Green Berets.
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04-20-2011, 08:21 PM | #17 |
EQ-Viper
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 4,343
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Well, I just found out that veteran photojournalist and Restrepo co-director Tim Hetherton was killed in Libya earlier today while covering the on-going conflict. Terrible, terrible news.
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04-21-2011, 11:41 AM | #18 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,586
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Quote:
I've been meaning to watch Restrepo. Heard all sorts of good things about it. Also, not a film documentary, but I heartily recommend "Generation Kill" (the book, not the HBO series, of which I know nothing about). It's an amazing work of embedded journalism (the writer spent several weeks in 2003 with the First Recon Battalion), and really sheds some light on what happened on the ground during the early days of the Iraq invasion. It's also pretty funny, too (both in the LOL way, and in a dark, morbid humour kind of way).
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04-21-2011, 11:43 AM | #19 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,586
|
Quote:
Well, I just found out that veteran photojournalist and Restrepo co-director Tim Hetherton was killed in Libya earlier today while covering the on-going conflict. Terrible, terrible news.
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04-21-2011, 11:52 AM | #20 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,586
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Quote:
Yeah, the individuals in the WWII and Cold War-era SAS did have that sort of too-weird-to-be-successful-anywhere-else-but-in-the-SAS image to them. The tall tales surrounding SAS founder Paddy Mayne may have contributed to that image of the service (and his legacy would influence how people would see later SF and SOF in general), although as with many things concerning these matters, it's hard separating the BS and bluster from the truth.
In WWII, the Germans executed an attack on a seemingly invincible fort by crashlanding onto the top of it in gliders. The German guy who came up with that idea was a really brilliant special forces leader, but he had all kinds of personality quirks that would probably have kept him out of the SEALs. And just imagine the conversation in the tenth year of the siege of Troy - in the Greek Command tent: Agamemnon: Well we just lost Achilles, our champion fighter, and we're still stuck here outside these damn walls. Any bright ideas? Odysseus: Well um, I have this kind of wild idea, so bear with me for a sec. But first we have to build a great big horse... |
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