[Basenshukai]

I read the book. I saw it for what it was and enjoyed it.

While it is true that Special Forces has led the way as a stabilizing force in many areas of the world, I would not want to commit to define ourselves to others as "diplomats". I think our version of diplomacy and the version that elected officials understand are two different animals.

One of the most interesting comments that have I heard in a while was from a senior SF NCO who said that the best thing that has happened to SF in the last 10 years has been its current focus in OEF and OIF. He made the point that the various conventional CINCs and the National Command Authority now really understand that SF is truly an elite force that has proven that it is extremely effective at the art of killing the enemy. For a long time, it seems, the ill-perceived stigma of SF as merely well-trained "teachers" became almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. For the sake of our future as warriors, we must walk these lines carefully.

When we define ourselves as “diplomats� to our peers, we understand it as it being an expression of our ability to shape the battlefield by unconventional means. We understand the meaning of these words whereas they pertain to us. Civilians, and elected officials do not make the same distinctions we do. If we keep touting ourselves as diplomats to those that cannot make the distinction between "Warrior Diplomat" and "Diplomat", we might find ourselves fighting a new incorrect stigma that might some day be a prophecy that others might try to fulfill against our best interest. If we are “diplomats� of any kind, we are “Warrior Diplomats� and the hand-guards of our swords sit very lightly upon the mouth of their scabbards.