[MtnGoat]

I think one main issue SFODAs and SOF Commanders are having within Afghanistan is with the publication of FM 3-24 (Counterinsurgency) and FM 3-07 .22 (Counterinsurgency Operations). I see these FMs as being some reason for Conventional Officers to think that they have gotten a major step in the evolution of military thinking about unconventional warfare. They way they think they are thinking. With these FMs, they think they know how to run an unconventional warfare environment. They think they have Command and Control of the tactical level Battlespace within an unconventional warfare environment that their Counterinsurgency Operations are happening it. Yes officially they do have the Tactical control Battlespace. Unconventional Warfare - NOT! They feel they know what Special Forces have been saying or doing on the battlefield, they think they know how to do it. For them FM 3-24provides guidance to military commanders, soldiers, and NGOs as they face the Taliban. Yes it does provide provides guidance to military commanders, Military FM do that. The Taliban is a determined enemy interwoven into and within a foreign (Social) culture in Afghanistan. Why can’t the Conventional Military just step back from their Books, PDFs, Thesis' and Blogs; just recognizes that the Conventional Military cannot do counterinsurgency alone.

IMHO Counterinsurgency Operations is a multi-dimensional warfare. Yes they do need to take the advice, expertise, and resources of their Special Forces, not their SOF elements within their tactical Battlespace. Yes Special Forces have many SOF elements working with them, but it is the SFODA Commander, Detachment Operations SGT (AKA: Team SGT) and all those Detachment members that know what is going on most likely for those new Convenetional Forces. Even the civilian agencies that focus on the political, social, and developmental of a given area to counter or better yet to undermine support for insurgents within that area. Not to listening to us Special Forces nut heads that many just be “people that somehow or other tended to be nonconformists, couldn't get along in a straight military system, and found a haven where their actions were not scrutinized too carefully, and where they came under only sporadic or intermittent observation from the regular chain of command."