Surely everyone should know American films and books about special operations are, at best, political propoganda.
To my knowledge, very little about British SF actions has ever been made a political tool, thank heavens.
That's not just better, but should be the rule.
We elect politicians to make decisions.
We elect politicians based upon media.
If there is a problem, it's those in charge of the narrative who should be held accountable.
Ultimately, it's us, who are accountable.
We choose to be informed, or not.
If we vote for people on the basis of B.S, that's a lot of us.
If those politicians make decisions, that are wrong, that's on us. Not the enforcers of those decisions. Especially in the case, ideally, (yes I know,) of national security.
If you care passionately about what your service men and women do, it is incumbent upon you to get off commercial media, and read up on what's going on. As best you can.
I had high hopes for this generation of soldiers that fought in the asinine Bush Wars. I respect their service but their political opinions are unfortunately garbage. Trump surrendering to the Taliban was the right call and for some reason this group of warriors attack Biden for the Taliban being in charge of Afghanistan??
Man how I was set upon by indignant pissed off military worshippers when I first criticized the flood of ex Seals cashing in with book and movie deals.
Ths critique is trying too hard. It goes on and on about NSW sanctioning a book and engaging in PR. Yeah, they did, and maybe it was a shot in the arm the public and the military needed. We did this in WWII as well. I remember all of this vividly--I even contacted NSW to try to reach Marcus about writing the screenplay. I don't recall anyone or the book trying to whitewash that sending an unarmored helo into the hot zone or the mission itself wasn't a tragic mistake. None of this detracts from the heroism and sacrifice made by Red Wings, Luttrell, nor the MOH awarded to Murphy. I'm glad when stories are told, after they're out, minus sensitive operational details. You're right about Delta--never hear about the D-Boys. The ones I know really are quiet professionals. But we can use Jockos to inspire recruits at a time when recruiting is a challenge. And we need Eli Cranes, Morgan Luttrells, and Dan Crenshaws in Congress.
I don’t care about the books. YouTube is littered with double knot spies and operators from every secret agent organization telling their stories. All these folks are great Americans. I was just a vanilla ranger SF guy. During my day discussing deployments, operations, capabilities and the such outside of the team room was verboten. Times have changed. Just don’t promote some bogus quiet professional ethos.
It’s a funny line, to reveal or not to reveal…The SAS for years held everything so close no one knew if they really existed, until the Iranian embassy hostage mission. Even then it was kept close, Andy McNab’s book Bravo Two Zero changed that, it seems to be a slippery slope.
That said in a nation of 330-350 million and less than 1% serve it is easy to see how events and stories that follow get out of hand. The public is thirsty for hero’s and not having a grasp of the Bush Obama war years makes good stories, good reading and action thriller movies. The day to day of military life just doesn’t sell apparently. Even the day to day life in the very active combat environments that were fought in doesn’t seem to resonate. Having just finished listening to 5 hours of an interview of CWO5 Alan Mack (he spent 17 years in the 160th Night stalkers unit. Further was involved at Roberts Ridge in fact was hit with an RPG and crashed his Chinook during the fight.) He spends some time detailing Operation Red Wing, it is hard not to wonder who was really doing the planning. Hammer and anvil, this tactic was used to limited effect in Vietnam and at USMC Infantry Officers Course we barely touched on it in 1978. So again who was thinking what or thinking at all.
Regardless here we are small in numbers against the population writ large and fighting amongst ourselves. The royalty of the DC combine are thrilled to hear us fighting, it means they are off the hook. You can hear the champagne corks popping and them laughing at us…everyone wonders why recruiting is off…it’s all disappointing.
Surely everyone should know American films and books about special operations are, at best, political propoganda.
To my knowledge, very little about British SF actions has ever been made a political tool, thank heavens.
That's not just better, but should be the rule.
We elect politicians to make decisions.
We elect politicians based upon media.
If there is a problem, it's those in charge of the narrative who should be held accountable.
Ultimately, it's us, who are accountable.
We choose to be informed, or not.
If we vote for people on the basis of B.S, that's a lot of us.
If those politicians make decisions, that are wrong, that's on us. Not the enforcers of those decisions. Especially in the case, ideally, (yes I know,) of national security.
If you care passionately about what your service men and women do, it is incumbent upon you to get off commercial media, and read up on what's going on. As best you can.
A Delta Operator, Green Beret and Navy SEAL walk into a bar...
and the SEAL writes a book about it.
[Unfortunately, this is now an old joke.]
What does the Navy give a SEAL when they retire? A publicist.
I had high hopes for this generation of soldiers that fought in the asinine Bush Wars. I respect their service but their political opinions are unfortunately garbage. Trump surrendering to the Taliban was the right call and for some reason this group of warriors attack Biden for the Taliban being in charge of Afghanistan??
Man how I was set upon by indignant pissed off military worshippers when I first criticized the flood of ex Seals cashing in with book and movie deals.
Good article, Seth.
Thanks Brian. Means a lot since you’re one of my toughest critics.
Ths critique is trying too hard. It goes on and on about NSW sanctioning a book and engaging in PR. Yeah, they did, and maybe it was a shot in the arm the public and the military needed. We did this in WWII as well. I remember all of this vividly--I even contacted NSW to try to reach Marcus about writing the screenplay. I don't recall anyone or the book trying to whitewash that sending an unarmored helo into the hot zone or the mission itself wasn't a tragic mistake. None of this detracts from the heroism and sacrifice made by Red Wings, Luttrell, nor the MOH awarded to Murphy. I'm glad when stories are told, after they're out, minus sensitive operational details. You're right about Delta--never hear about the D-Boys. The ones I know really are quiet professionals. But we can use Jockos to inspire recruits at a time when recruiting is a challenge. And we need Eli Cranes, Morgan Luttrells, and Dan Crenshaws in Congress.
I don’t care about the books. YouTube is littered with double knot spies and operators from every secret agent organization telling their stories. All these folks are great Americans. I was just a vanilla ranger SF guy. During my day discussing deployments, operations, capabilities and the such outside of the team room was verboten. Times have changed. Just don’t promote some bogus quiet professional ethos.
It’s a funny line, to reveal or not to reveal…The SAS for years held everything so close no one knew if they really existed, until the Iranian embassy hostage mission. Even then it was kept close, Andy McNab’s book Bravo Two Zero changed that, it seems to be a slippery slope.
That said in a nation of 330-350 million and less than 1% serve it is easy to see how events and stories that follow get out of hand. The public is thirsty for hero’s and not having a grasp of the Bush Obama war years makes good stories, good reading and action thriller movies. The day to day of military life just doesn’t sell apparently. Even the day to day life in the very active combat environments that were fought in doesn’t seem to resonate. Having just finished listening to 5 hours of an interview of CWO5 Alan Mack (he spent 17 years in the 160th Night stalkers unit. Further was involved at Roberts Ridge in fact was hit with an RPG and crashed his Chinook during the fight.) He spends some time detailing Operation Red Wing, it is hard not to wonder who was really doing the planning. Hammer and anvil, this tactic was used to limited effect in Vietnam and at USMC Infantry Officers Course we barely touched on it in 1978. So again who was thinking what or thinking at all.
Regardless here we are small in numbers against the population writ large and fighting amongst ourselves. The royalty of the DC combine are thrilled to hear us fighting, it means they are off the hook. You can hear the champagne corks popping and them laughing at us…everyone wonders why recruiting is off…it’s all disappointing.
“It goes without saying that you don’t profit from your actions, either.” 😏