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Thread: 60 Minutes special on SF in A'stan

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  1. #1
    Council Member politicsbyothermeans's Avatar
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    Setting aside, for a moment, that this little piece of "journalism" is about Green Berets, I mean Quiet Professionals, I mean US Special Forces, any American professional soldier that watches this report must feel some disgust and/or shame. For example there's a classic laugh or cry? moment when the knucklehead getting ready to smoke the Commandos flags his terp. There are the excuses made after cool guy pops two kids in the back of a van. I felt bad about myself, and my chosen profession, when he next pulled the ugly American move of screaming "Get off the bike" in English... because, you know, the guy on the bike probably speaks a lot more English than Dari or Pashtu.

    Look, I'm not armchair quarterbacking these guys. There's no way to condense two months with a team into a 15 minute article. But there was some really amateurish stuff going on there and I can't help but wonder who gave this thing the green light.

    I don't know any of those guys. What I do know is that they are all young and I do have a pretty good feel for young soldiers. What I remember back in the good old pre- 9/11 days was that the average age of an ODA was typically on the other side of 30. Further, I was a young dumb soldier once. Older smarter soldiers made me a little less dumb. I didn't see any older smarter soldiers in that video that could help those guys stop being dumb. SOF truths anyone?

    I think this may have actually unseated the tank crew ventilating a car with their sidearms as "Most embarrassing 60 minute piece ever".
    In war there is no prize for the runner-up.

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    Quote Originally Posted by politicsbyothermeans View Post
    What I remember back in the good old pre- 9/11 days was that the average age of an ODA was typically on the other side of 30.

    Indeed, I remember in Desert Storm, we had 4 5th SFG NCOs attached to us. 2 were Vietnam vets, the other two also over 30.

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