DOD to craft new terrorist-hunting strategy for Afghanistan
- By Defense Systems Staff
- Feb 07, 2012
The U.S. military will revisit its terrorist-hunting strategy and make key adjustments to the way it employs Special Operations forces in Afghanistan in the advent of their taking on a larger role as a result of a planned withdrawal of conventional forces from the embattled southwestern Asian nation, Adm. William McRaven said Feb. 7, reports
The Associated Press. The changes might occur as soon as this summer.
“We feel like we have to become not only more effective but more efficient,” McRaven, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., said in an address to the National Defense Industrial Association in Washington, D.C.
For example, under the current system, if the Special Operations terrorist hunters have a handful of potential insurgents to hit in a given area, they will likely choose to strike the high-value target, instead of spending their time hunting lower level insurgents menacing a local village that Army Green Berets are trying to secure, according to U.S. military officials. But with one commander in charge of all special operations, that individual could decide to clear out those lower level insurgents to secure the village, leaving the high-value target for another night, the story said.