Before we get into the debate I would like to provide a perspective:

1) By law (Title 10) FID is a SOF core mission.
2) However, by Joint doctrine all services are responsible for providing forces trained and ready to conduct and support FID.

There is some inter-service parochialism out there and some fear the Marines are horning on a traditional SOF mission. A few points about that.

The Army and the Marines and to a lesser extent (but no less important) the Navy and the Air Force have a long history of conducting operations that fall into the FID category (especially when we understand FID doctrine - all the services have contributed extensively to Indirect FID with their security assistance programs, their military to military partnerships, mobile training teams, combined training exericses (e.g., REFORGER, Cobra Gold, Bright Star, Team Spirit, Balikatan, Cabanas, Foal Eagle, just to name a few) and International Military Education and Training (IMET) which nearly all the service schools contribute to). SOF participates in those areas but has been employed to a greater extent in Direct FID and Combat FID (though again, the Army and the Marines are now heavily engaged in Combat FID in Iraq and Afghanistan as is SOF) while SOF continues to contribute to Direct FID around the world in Africa (JTF HOA and OEF-Trans-Sahal), Central and South America (e.g., Colombia and OEF - CCA) and Asia (e.g., OEF-P in The Philippines).

While some will say that the new Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARFORSOC) will take away missions from Special Forces I say that is bunk. First, there is going to be enough work for everyone for a long time to come. While SOF in general and Special Forces in particular will be able to handle most of the Direct FID operations outside of OIF and OEF Afghanistan all the services will need to contribute to Indirect FID as they always have and hopefully (if we ever see authorities change) they will to an even greater extent. But when we compare MARFORSOC to USASOC we should remember that even when they are fully operational capable they will only be 1% the size of USASOC and less than 2% the size of Special Forces. They are not going to replace Special Forces but they will be able to add to our nation's Special Operations capabilities.

In addition, I am glad to see that this discussion is about FID. I have heard some of the new COIN experts and Security Forces Assistance aficionados say that FID is an outdated doctrine and no longer relevant since it is a Cold War paradigm. To which I say again that is bunk. SFA, COIN, Train, Advise and Assist are all natural subsets of FID. And by the way, FID doctrine also clearly states that it is more than a military approach, it has to be interagency. The problem goes back to my first point above - by law SOF is a core mission and because of that most people have blown off reading FID doctrine and we have all these COIN entrepreneurs out there developing new terminology and organizations and in my (hopefully) humble opinion we are wasting a lot of intellectual time and energy trying to create new things rather than applying what has already been proven and perhaps just updating and tweaking the good existing doctrine (some have argued that since FID doctrine does not account for 1206 and 1207 funding authorities it is no longer relevant and that Security Force Assistance must replace it – again, I say that is bunk, just add 1206 and 1207 funding authority definitions (or whatever the new term is in the FY 08 legislation) to the existing FID doctrine and get on with business). Again, just because FID is a SOF core mission does negate the fact that all services have a role in FID and I am happy to see the Marine Corps taking it on responsibly.