Wiley's "Boots Off the Ground"

With our struggling economy, shrinking national budget, and political gridlock, America has to decide how to effectively use the money and military she has to effect the policy goals she is trying to achieve. Covert Operations apparently promise cheap solutions to big international problem. But are they cheap in the long run and can we depend on their devastating success to continue for the foreseeable future?

Wiley Lecture Series recently hosted 'Boots Off The Ground: A 21st Century American Military', which looked at the role covert operations have and perhaps should fill. Retired Army General Montgomery Meig moderated the discussion between Ambassador Ryan Crocker who served in several countries in the Middle East, Mr. David Sanger a journalist who has focused on our confrontations with rogue states, and General Stan McCrystal, who oversaw U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan and led led JSOC for several years.

Before we can talk about how military forces accomplish their mission, we have to understand what is at the base of their mission. Military force is an arm of political policy. Military action always seeks to achieve a political aim, whether it is the destruction of Nazi aggression or the securing of national interests abroad. Use of Covert Ops should be seen not merely in how it helps us defeat hostile militaries, but in how they help us achieve our national policies at home and abroad.

At the center of the discussion was the benefits and costs of using cover operations in place of conventional forces. There were three specific types of covert operations discussed.

• Drones: They have proven themselves reliable and effective on a wide range of missions. However, in several instances they can cause collateral damage in civilian casualties, which may turn out to make them counterproductive in the long run.
• Cyber Warefare: Bloodless, high tech, and apparently clean, everyone thinks they are very cool. it has a very high potential to be turned back around on us. In 2010 the program Olympic Games malfunctioned and America's cutting edge offensive cyber weapon was broadcast all over the world for everyone to look at and pick apart. Also, leaks in the cyber age dwarf leaks in the Cold War era where files had to be photocopied one page at a time. Now someone can carry out on a flash drive or post on the internet millions of files full of sensitive information. 
• Special Forces. Very effective and precise, America boasts the best overall Special Forces in the world. However, a contributing factor in their success has been a technological gap between them and their targets that is rapidly shrinking. In addition, special forces are primarily useful to remove negative forces opposing our national strategy. They have limited usefulness in nation building or projecting positive influence that our policies may call for. 

America wants to project its influence around the world. While many are opposed to us swinging around the world police bludgeon, there are always areas we are expected to deal with, whether it is facilitating peace talks and general stability in the Middle East or South America, or Nuclear Proliferation treaties, convention foces deployed and with the willingness to be deployed are vital. Iraq could not have been stabilized and rebuilt without the surge of 2007 which put large numbers of conventional troops on the ground. 

Also, we have not yet faced an opponent with similar Covert capabilities. The targets we have hit so successfully are not too dissimilar from our own structures of command and control. What will happen to an american command and control post when a  North Korean or Chinese Spec Ops team knocks out the power? How will we prevent that from happening, and how are we going to develop contingencies for when it does? In 1960 we believed that air to air combat would be decided with high tech missiles and thus a gun was not necessary. The F-4E was modified with a 20mm gun not long after earlier designs first saw combat. we cannot rely on new high tech equipment to the detriment of conventional equipment. 

A modern military must balance conventional with covert forces in the same way the F-4 had to balance its armament. Not only will our technological edge shrink, but everyone is trying to figure out how to beat the army we have. We cannot sit content with the fact that we have gotten ahead of the curve with covert ops. We must continue to look for the next curve and figure out how to win the next conflict before it is fought and we learn the rules have changed while we rested on our superiority. 

We will always need a conventional force that is capable of conducting operations like the Surge which put boots on the ground and enforce order. Covert Operations are devastating as supporting arms of broader policy and strategy, but they need other supports to create that devastating effect.