Special Ops ‘Surge’ Sparks Debate

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Special Ops ‘Surge’ Sparks Debate

Critics: Afghanistan plan takes SF from usual training mission
By Sean D. Naylor - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Dec 20, 2008 7:14:45 EST

Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plan to deploy three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan by the summer has superseded a contentious debate that pitted the Bush administration’s “war czar” against the special operations hierarchy over a proposed near-term “surge” of spec ops forces to Afghanistan, a Pentagon military official said.

The National Security Council’s surge proposal, which grew out of its Afghan strategy review, recommended an increase of “about another battalion’s worth” of troops to the Combined and Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan, or CJSOTF-A, said a field-grade Special Forces officer, who added that this would enlarge the task force by about a third.

Several sources said that the “SOF surge” proposal originated with Lt. Gen. Doug Lute, the so-called “war czar” whose official title is assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan policy and implementation. The rationale behind deploying more special ops forces to Afghanistan was that any decision to deploy more conventional brigades to Afghanistan would take at least several months to implement, whereas special ops units could be sent much more quickly, the Special Forces officer said.

To those in favor, the proposed deployment of additional Special Forces A-teams — the 12-man units also known as operational detachment-alphas — represented proof that the Bush administration was willing to take immediate action to reverse negative trends in the Afghan war, the Pentagon military official said.

However, the proposal sparked a fierce high-level debate, with special operations officers charging that Lute and his colleagues were trying to micromanage the movement of individual Special Forces A-teams from inside the Beltway, and countercharges that Special Forces has strayed from its traditional mission of raising and training indigenous forces and become too focused on direct-action missions to kill or capture enemies.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/army_sofsurge_122908w/%2e