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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (105844)7/17/2003 2:11:56 AM
From: Bilow  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
Hi JS; Re: " The program worked, eliminating the Vietcong from the area. But it was abandoned, because it was too strange for widespread application by our military."

Special forces are elite troops. There is no way that you can wave a magic wand and turn a pile of GIs into elite troops. If there was a way, every f'ing Army on the planet would do it, because special forces are far more effective war fighters than regular GIs.

It was not possible for the US to use special forces exclusively in Vietnam because it was impossible to recruit enough suitable candidates.

In addition, special forces are typically used in places where they can be most effective, and it's doubtful that they can be applied as effectively at other places. This is a standard precept of engineering, the law of diminishing returns.

-- Carl

P.S. A cool picture of a SF soldier defending the Afghan president:
cursor.org
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