{"id":54874,"date":"2020-05-23T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/05\/23\/protecting-the-future-of-the-special-operations-forces-enterprise\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T09:05:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:05:52","slug":"protecting-the-future-of-the-special-operations-forces-enterprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/05\/23\/protecting-the-future-of-the-special-operations-forces-enterprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting the future of the special operations forces enterprise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The similarity between special operations forces (SOF) and Dixie Cups is not immediately obvious, but it is a comparison many inside the special operations community reluctantly make. Dixie Cups come in a seemingly unlimited supply, you can use them when you need them \u2014 often at the last minute \u2014 and then you can throw them away. Unfortunately, the lack of long-term investment in special operations can feel like the same treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOF have typically been proposed, created or built up in times of crisis. Government leaders and the military services, to a certain extent, support these periods of SOF growth in either capability or capacity. Money, people, and equipment flow in. But, inevitably, long-term resources are not made available to sustain, maintain, and grow the new capability. And at some point, usually gradually, the political perception of the seriousness of the crisis recedes. And as a result, the resources that were directed to SOF are easily moved to other priorities, especially because they seldom included long-term investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOF has been a shiny object for a while, but its luster is fading with the drawdown of forces in the Middle East and South Asia, our renewed focus on \u201cgreat power competition,\u201d and the onset of a global pandemic. Special operators know the \u201cSOF Truth\u201d that competent SOF cannot be created overnight. Some of us have come to believe that people outside of SOF understand this, but they don\u2019t. How terribly tragic it would be if, on some day and in some place in the future, our nation once again needs a daring, difficult, and dangerous task performed that requires exquisite skill and unmatched problem-solving \u2014 and our SOF is unable to meet that call for want of support.<\/p>\n\n\n\t