Thanks Amos,

I agree it was a very interesting essay, as you state detailing nine reasons why Special Operations Forces have not been used in a counter-terrorist role from 1989 up until the decision was taken to act against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

I would disagree on your statement in parenthesis, "the only kind equipped to deal with that sort of guerilla organization on any real terms, I think". The use of Special Forces in this context is in fact very limited, lots of other things have to have been carried out successfully before your SOF are called in.

Through the 1990's according to the essay a great deal was talked about, although little was done. The factors described as the "nine showstoppers" conspired to set CIA, the Pentagon and the US Legal system at odds with one another.

Richard Clarke was regarded by senior officers in the Pentagon as, "a madman, out of control, power hungry" - it appears he displayed knowledge of what could be achieved by using special forces, but absolutely no concept of how they were supposed to achieve it.

The current administration is given credit for implementing much of what actually needed doing years before. Rumsfeld is shown to fully understanding what can be achieved and what is required to make it suceed, it also shows that he is fully prepared to take on the Pentagon to actually get things done.

The article unfortunately does not go back far enough in my opinion. It is a pity the author did not look into the decision taken under Jimmy Carter's Presidency to focus almost entirely on tech-intell and dispense with human-intell. It was from that point that rather large "black-holes" started to appear in world-wide US intelligence.