Bill, improving the conventional force in UW is one of the things I'm trying to bring out in this thread; is it important? If so, how do we go about it? What is the SF/SOF role?

If Iraq is an accurate barometer of the kinds of wars we will be fighting in the future, conventional forces must become proficient in a UW environment in order to compliment and in some cases releive SF/SOF. The SF gung ho attitude displayed by my opponent while highly commendable is unrealistic. There has to be a conventional/SF integration it's happening and will continue to evlove despite his apparent distaste for it. We have to find the right mix. To top it all off, our conventional force also has to maintain efficiency in fighting a classic conventional wars as well, with North Korea, and China looming on the horizon. Quite a puzzle isnt' it?

An interesting thing happend in OIF that I'm not sure has occured before. Conventional forces were actually subordinated to an SF command. 173d ABN Brigade was under JSOTF-N control I beleive. This is the kind of exposure that I think would be of great benefit to conventional Soldiers in learning about UW through OJT.