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Howard Altman Columns
Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who has been traveling the globe to drum up more support in the ongoing fight against the so-called Islamic State jihadi group, says he has received additional support from 90 percent of the countries involved in the fight against them.
That includes additional Canadian special operations forces to train the Kurdish peshmerga, as well as commandos from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
But as Carter racks up the frequent flier miles in search of help, an international group of special operations forces leaders is getting ready to come here and take over a Palm Harbor golf resort to talk about how commandos can work better together in the future.
The second annual Global SOF Foundation Symposium kicks off Feb. 22 at the Innisbrook Resort with a golf outing before things get really serious over the following three days.
Stu Bradin, a former Army colonel who set up the NATO special operations forces headquarters and was a top aide to William McRaven, former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, argues that there is another way forward, by responding to military challenges in Europe and Asia with greater proportionality, and by having Jordan lead the way in the fight against the so-called Islamic State and al-Qaida in Syria and Iraq.
But more on that later.
Bringing together special operations forces leaders from more than two dozen nations and NATO, the symposium’s theme is “Achieving SOF Interoperability,” which is military talk for working together.
In plain English, it is “an effort to unify the global special operations community in a way no one else is doing,” says Bradin, whose nonprofit foundation is an advocate for special operations forces. Created two years ago, it is independent of Socom and serves in a similar capacity to organizations like the Association of the U.S. Army, the Air Force Association and other nonprofits that advocate on behalf of the services.
“When you attend the symposium you hear from a lot of Eastern Europeans that do not think any of the Western Europeans will rally to support them — especially if it is a hybrid fight,” Bradin says. “You will hear small nations that can’t afford large armies capable of defeating a tank army. They don’t want a large conventional fight but rather one of proportional response to avoid the big fight.”
Hybrid warfare blends traditional maneuver warfare of armies with unconventional and irregular warfare, information operations and cyberattacks.
The symposium, Bradin says, “will have nations that see things differently. Many need to focus on Russia because it is at the door and others see ISIS and the refugee problem as their main threat. Some nations from Eastern Europe are doing both to ensure the U.S. does not abandon them.”
The panels are geared to looking at issues of warfare through a special operations forces lens, all aimed at the future, Bradin says.
“We can’t have a current ops discussion at classified level,” Bradin says. “Our events focus on the future, on the policy, not the here and now. That is the government’s role, not the foundation’s role.”
The year’s panels will cover a range of issues, from fighting at night to the use of drones to a keynote speech from CNN security analyst Peter Bergen, “Why does ISIS continue to recruit fighters from around the world? And what can be done about it?”
Bergen is one of several well-known invitees who will be taking part in the symposium, which will also mark a return to Tampa by McRaven, the retired SEAL four-star admiral who ran Socom from 2011 to 2014 and who before that was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command and the architect of the “not really very sexy” raid that whacked Osama bin Laden. He is now chancellor of the University of Texas Systems. McRaven will attend the symposium to pick up an award.
There are several others who are known outside the shadowy world of special operations.
British Gen. Sir Adrian Bradshaw, deputy supreme allied commander Europe for NATO, commands all the European Union’s forces and is the EU’s military point man for the refugee crisis.
Juan Carlos Pinzon, the Colombian ambassador to the U.S., will offer an evaluation of Colombian special operations forces, considered to be among the world’s finest and frequently touted as a success for U.S. SOF-led training and stabilization efforts.
Catherine Herridge, chief intelligence correspondent for Fox News, will moderate a panel on media in hybrid warfare. Michael Lumpkin, a retired Navy SEAL and former Pentagon point man for special operations who is now in charge of the anti-Daesh messaging at the Department of State, will deliver a keynote speech, “Operating in a New Era: Building Partner Capacity and Measuring Results.”
And there are many who are top international special operations forces leaders, as well as several U.S. SOF officers speaking, as well.
Bradin is quick to point out that the symposium is forward-leaning, but with so many top-level people under one tent, there is no doubt that current events will be a big part of side discussions, if not some of the keynotes and panels.
Last year, Jordanian Princess Aisha bin Al Hussein drew a large crowd, telling an audience of international commandos that, ultimately, it is up to the Muslim world to combat ideology espoused by groups like al-Qaida, Islamic State, Boko Haram and others acting in the name of Islam.
“It really has to come from within the Muslim communities to fight the ideology, and that doesn’t just mean in the Arab world,” said Hussein, sister of King Abdullah II and her nation’s defense attache to the Jordanian embassy in Washington.
“That is something we have to do, unfortunately, you cannot help us with that. It’s our responsibility. We’ve allowed it to go on too long, and we know it’s critical that we address this situation as soon as possible.”
Secretary Carter just attended a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels, calling it a key moment in the U.S.-led coalition effort against Daesh. But Bradin argues that the princess was onto something.
“They should be running the coalition,” Bradin says, speaking of the Jordanians.
Not only is King Abdullah a commando, but he is also “the most dependable, trusted leader in the region and the only guy who can go between the Sunni and Shia and people won’t get upset.”
Abdullah, he adds, is well-respected in both the West and the Middle East, and does not carry the baggage with Russians and Iranians that Americans do.
“Why does he not command?” Bradin asks. “Why does it have to be an American?”
Princess Aisha “said last year that it is their fight. When are we going to listen?”
The U.S. could support that effort, with aircraft, communications systems, logistics and intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, among other things, Bradin said.
The odds of that happening are minuscule. But Bradin sees great hope in the selection of Socom commander Army Gen. Joseph Votel to take over at U.S, Central Command, which oversees U.S. military efforts in the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
“It’s huge,” Bradin says. “Huge. He is going there not because he is some Nostradamus. He is going there because they got tired of getting conventional responses from headquarters dealing with an unconventional threat. There hasn’t been a conventional threat in the Middle East since the ‘72 Israel-Arab war.”
Bradin and Keenan Yoho, the foundation’s vice president, argue that the U.S. response to aggression by Russia and China could use another look, as well.
Russian operations in Ukraine, while deadly and destructive, have been below the threshold that it would take to trigger an all-for-one, one-for-all action from NATO, known as an Article 5 collective defense response, Yoho says.
So instead of rolling out combat brigade teams and armor divisions, the U.S. and its allies should prepare what Yoho calls a “proportional response” — smaller, special operations units that can counter the unconventional warfare approach used by the Russians.
Likewise, Bradin argues for modification of U.S. response to Chinese actions in the South China Sea that have included building artificial islands and sending out fleets of fishing vessels to monitor and harass ships from other nations.
“They have 2,500 fishing boats and our goal is to smoke a couple of gray hulls in the middle of that,” says the ever-colloquial Bradin, using slang to refer to American warships. “Who is escalating it? It is us, busting through there with destroyers. Do we have anything proportional that can change the dynamics on the ground?”
But by “we,” Bradin really means the international special operations forces community.
“We can’t do it alone,” he says. “We have to build competent and capable SOF partners.”
Which is a big reasons, says Bradin, for holding the Global SOF Foundation Symposium.
For more information, go to www.globalsofsymposium.org.
The Pentagon announced no new deaths last week in its ongoing overseas operations.
There have been 2,347 U.S. troop deaths in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, 21 U.S. troop deaths and one civilian Department of Defense employee death in support of the follow-up Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan, and 11 troop deaths and one civilian death in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
Original URL: https://www.tbo.com/list/military-news/altman/a-focus-on-the-future-not-the-present-20160214/
