Conventional Armed Forces Analysis

Soldiers in the U.S. military can be separated into two specific categories. First are conventional armed forces that are used to fight an opposing nation’s military. Two examples would be U.S. conventional forces fighting the Iraqi Army in both the Gulf War in 1990 and the early stage of the War on Iraq in 2003. The second category is Special Operations Forces or SOF who are used to fight an unconventional enemy such as insurgencies. Some examples would be SOF battling insurgent groups in the Afghanistan War in 2001 and the War in Iraq during 2003 after Saddam was removed from power when the U.S. was fighting insurgencies. Also, both conventional forces and SOF can be used in conventional or unconventional warfare. Therefore, how does the …show more content…
military has been using SOF to train ally militant groups behind enemy lines and perform direct action missions to eliminate these insurgencies before they spread any further. SOF biggest role to fight these insurgencies is by making sure nations with less military expertise have the ability to battle insurgents if they become a problem within their country. As stated by Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael D. Lumpkin, “SOF capabilities for indirect activities enable us to persistently engage throughout the world, working with international partners to build their capabilities before conflicts arise so that they can defend themselves and, by extension, defend us.” This strategy keeps the U.S. from getting involved in another large scale war and allows allies to eventually defend themselves without the need of U.S. military assistance. This study will draw off historical examples of U.S. military conflicts from the Gulf War to SOF current involvement against insurgencies. In doing so, one can determine what specific factors led the U.S. to switch from deploying conventional forces to SOF. Examining America’s various military conflicts will demonstrate how the change from fighting an identifiable enemy to an unidentifiable enemy has deeply affected the U.S. military’s ways of waging …show more content…
These various news sources offer the latest information regarding the U.S. involvement against insurgencies around the world. Several books were used in this study, specifically Philip Smith’s Why War?: The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez, US Special Operations Forces in Action: The Challenge of Unconventional Warfare by Thomas K. Adams, and U.S. Special Forces by Hans Halberstadt, Terry Griswold, D. M Giangreco and Fred J. Pushies. The information collected from these sources was critical in highlighting the U.S. military’s decision to shift from deploying conventional war fighting forces in favor of Special Operations