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Malign actors deploy cyberattacks, economic coercion, disinformation, and illicit gray zone tactics to destabilize the modern Indo-Pacific region. Competition in the region is currently not characterized by kinetic engagements—it is a protracted, complex struggle that advances incrementally. Economies, friendly nations, and innocent people pay the price. The primary perpetrators include the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Russia, Iran, North Korea, and a range of Violent Extremist Organizations (VEOs) – the 4+1 construct of bad actors (while acknowledging that all current US security strategy documents explicitly highlight the CCP as the primary national security threat).
They are the silent professionals, the tip of the spear, the elite warriors operating in the shadows. Today, the Green Berets of the U.S. Army Special Forces command a legendary status, their exploits often shrouded in secrecy yet etched in the annals of military history. But before the accolades, before the iconic headgear became a symbol of excellence, the Special Forces were a fledgling community, battling not just potential adversaries, but also skepticism and a struggle for recognition within their own ranks. Among the key figures who championed this unconventional force was Lieutenant General William P. Yarborough.
The history of the U.S. special operations forces is filled with legendary missions like the battle of Mogadishu in 1993, SEAL Team 6 killing Osama bin Laden in 2011, and the raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. But none of those would have been possible if it weren’t for a failed mission in 1980 that forced the U.S. to rewrite the special operations playbook.
In the face of a more aggressive Iran, the United States hastened an agreement that returned bases to Iraqi forces. Simultaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic wrecked itineraries and replaced them with quarantines. The deployment we anticipated was no longer.
In line with SEAL ethos, senior leaders under Rear Admiral Hugh Wyman Howard III made our circumstances an opportunity. They implemented a standing strategy to realign SEAL Teams away from degrading ISIL networks and toward confronting rising regimes challenging US superiority.
The Department of Defense is taking significant steps to safeguard the brain health of its service members, recognizing its integral role in maintaining a medically ready force. All branches are actively developing and implementing prevention and mitigation strategies, with a particular emphasis on blast overpressure.
American power is in crisis, and with it, America’s role in the global system. More than thirty years after the end of the Cold War and nearly twenty-four after 9/11, is America still leader of the free world; the self-appointed “indispensable nation”? More importantly, does it want to be?
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