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April 2005

Special Operations Command Plans for Expanded Role in U.S. War on Terrorism

by Harold Kennedy

The expanding role of the U.S. Special Operations Command in planning and executing the U.S. war on terrorism will not necessarily take resources away from the conventional military services, said U.S. SOCOM Commander Gen. Bryan D. Brown.

“I think we’re the right command to take on this global mission,” he said at a Washington, D.C. special-operations conference. However, he cautioned, “this is not a land grab.”

U.S. SOCOM is reviewing “everything from the top down” in order to improve its ability to lead the war on terrorism, he said.

The new role for special operations forces would not interfere with the U.S. Central Command’s leadership in Iraq or Afghanistan, Brown said. Special operators would continue to support U.S. efforts in those conflicts as they have thus far, he said.

In fact, “we’re considering what missions can be transferred to conventional forces,” he said. “We’re big enough to do that.”

The command, for example, is increasing its cooperation with the Marine Corps, Brown said. The relationship between us and the Marines has never been better,” he said. “We’ve got tons of initiatives with them. You’ll start to see a lot of them coming out in the next few weeks.”

The command is adding Marines to its headquarters staff and to regional special operations staffs around the world. The Marines, meanwhile, have formed a new unit to help train foreign troops, traditionally a Special Forces mission.

Currently, Brown said, special operators and the Corps are evaluating the performance of an experimental, 86-man Marine detachment—the first of its kind—that deployed to Iraq with Navy SEALs in 2004. Brown said he visited the detachment in Iraq.

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