U.S. forces turning to ‘indirect’ war tactics

updated 10:56 p.m. ET June 27, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. - So long, Rambo.

Almost six years after the worst attack ever on U.S. soil, special operations commanders believe that simply killing terrorists will not win a war against an ideologically motivated enemy.

That view is reflected in a series of transitions in special operations leadership posts. New senior officers are expected to give greater weight to an indirect approach to warfare, a slow and disciplined process that calls for supporting groups or nations willing to back U.S. interests.

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld turned special operations forces into a "giant killing machine," said Douglas Macgregor, a former Army colonel and frequent critic of the Defense Department.

Now, with Rumsfeld gone and Navy Vice Adm. Eric Olson about to take control of U.S. Special Operations Command, Macgregor anticipates a return to the fundamentals drilled into Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other specially trained troops.

"The emphasis will be on, 'If you have to kill someone, then for God's sakes, kill the right people,'" Macgregor said. "In most cases, you're not going to have to kill people and that's the great virtue of special operations. That's been lost over the last several years."

'Demanding and sensitive'
Olson has been deputy commander since August 2003; Army Gen. Bryan Brown, the command's top officer for the past four years, retires from the military next month.

At defense industry conferences and in congressional testimony, Olson has said the manhunts that grab bad guys as well as headlines will continue to be necessary against terrorists.

"The nation expects to have forces that can emerge from darkness with precision and daring to conduct missions that are especially demanding and sensitive," Olson told the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing June 12.

But these assignments, known as direct action, are means to a broader end.

"We understand well that it is the indirect actions that will be decisive," he testified.

Through the indirect route, support can be overt or covert. But it always is aimed at eliminating safe havens for terrorists. This is done by training foreign militaries, supporting surrogate forces or providing humanitarian, financial and civic backing to areas viewed as possible breeding grounds for terrorists.

It is not uncommon for a battle-ready Army special forces team to rumble into a remote village and spend most of its time painting mosques, drilling wells and running medical clinics.

"It's basically anything that doesn't involve combat operations against terrorists," said Andrew Feickert, a national defense specialist at the Congressional Research Service in Washington. "As Admiral Olson has said, we're not going to kill our way to victory."

Criticism of 'sexier SWAT-style raids'
At a House Armed Services Committee hearing in June 2006, Max Boot, a national security expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said critical indirect tasks had been "shortchanged by SOCOM in favor of sexier SWAT-style raids."

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on terrorism and unconventional threats, said the blame rests with the Bush administration. By choosing to invade Iraq, the administration gave special operations forces a heavy combat role.

"The main thing holding them back at this point is Iraq, which is pretty much all direct action," said Smith. "The desire has been there, and I think General Brown was trying to move it that way as best he could."

Brown, through a spokesman, said the command "has always emphasized the indirect approach because that is the approach that will ultimately prove decisive."

Formed in 1987 in the wake of the failed attempt to rescue U.S. hostages in Tehran, Iran, Special Operations Command is now an extensive network of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who use unconventional methods against untraditional enemies.

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