The persecution complex

Much like Wired covered the V-22 strictly from the standpoint of those who would never have to risk their lives being transported in the back, Newsweek presents this article on SEALs highlighting their frustrations with not being used...without searching for the deeper reasons behind why they're not:

Why? "The main reason has been severe restrictions on the types of missions they are allowed to undertake," says a U.S. defense analyst under Pentagon contract who works closely with Special Forces (he declined to be identified because his work is classified). While the Army's Delta Force and Green Berets get the best "direct action" and unconventional warfare missions—going after the bad guys—SEALs say they are often relegated to doing VIP escorts in Iraq or rescue missions, the defense analyst says. The Afghan recon mission was a rare "bright spot," he says, despite its tragic end. The Army also dominates the senior command, with Gen. Bryan Brown and Lt. Gen. William Boykin running Special Ops worldwide.

Of course. SEALs aren't being used because they are being 'screwed over' by higher. The vast Army conspiracy - much like the right wing conspiracy that secretly forced Clinton to doink an intern. Well, let's see what Joe on the ground has to say about the SEALs and why they aren't getting used:

I spent most of yesterday with a sensible young E-4 Cav scout just back from Iraq after a tour with 1/7th Cav, 1st Cav Division. It was very interesting to hear him talk about his war and his Army -- which in many ways is very different from what we knew, but in many ways very much the same.

His take on the U.S. special operations people he had contact with was very interesting. At one time or another, his troop worked as transport and/or blocking force for a SEAL Team, Delta, and 5th Group, and one platoon from his troop spent a couple months or so on detached duty as transport and back-up for an ODA.

His entire squadron loathed the SEALs, who came in driving dark (and conspicuously intimidating) vehicles that looked like something the crew at Pimp My Ride had customized for Darth Vader. They were arrogant and contemptuous of everyone who wasn't a SEAL, even to the point of cutting in lines in the PX, and they were very trigger-happy. At one point they were working in his squadron's sector in Baghdad, trying to sneak around in the city, and of course someone saw them -- as someone is bound to do when a group of men is making a big show of sneaking around in a city where people actually live. When they realized they'd been seen and felt themselves compromised, they opened fire 360.

This was a sector that 1/7 worked in regularly, and where they had very good relations with the residents -- until the SEALs came along and acted like Bob Kerrey's (D-Nebraska) squad allegedly did on that night recon that came to light a few years back, overreacting when they discovered that their cloak of invisibility wasn't working, and hosing every moving thing in sight.

It took lots of work, lots of Civic Action and perfect behavior to overcome what the frogs had done. Delta was something else, he said. They wore civilian clothes, some of them beards, some clean-shaven. They were slightly aloof, but not out of any personal need to be superior, just because they couldn't talk in detail about what they were up to. They impressed the hell out of the Cav scouts, and afterwards complimented them for keeping just enough distance from them when they were operating, saying that too often conventional troops tried to stay too close.

The regular SF, these Cav guys absolutely loved. This young E-4 said, the Green Berets were incredibly competent and knowledgeable and very willing to share what they knew. They lived very well and the platoon temporarily co-located with them, lived like kings and were treated like brothers by these Green Berets, and the Iraqis seemed to really trust them.

DAMN those Army generals and their conspiracies!