I am a former Green Beret of the Vietnam era where I spent 4 months in Vietnam as the XO of A-341 Bu Dop on the border of Cambodia in ‘67 until I was wounded and sent back to the states (the World as it was known back then). My total service was 4 years with the final rank of Captain. Some 20 years after getting out and now with some time on my hands I joined several military association one of which was the Special Forces Association mostly comprising Vietnam era vets (all Green Berets) with only a few from the WOT, or whatever they call it now.
A few years ago we had a current SF officer (field grade) attended a meeting and he gave us a briefing (unclassified) on the current situation with the current wars. I was shocked when he told me, when I talked to him, that he didn’t care who he was going after, he was only glad that he was “able to practice his art.” That maybe but when conducting unconventional warfare it must be done very cautiously as it is way too easy to get out of hand, and it has.
I don’t blame the military as much as the politicians in particular the commander in Chief the President. Without a clear and achievable mission the results are never good and the ROE (Rules Of Engagement) make for very difficult missions that are micro managed from the very top. As this post explains we are using our military as assassins and with a few exceptions that is wrong. What is also wrong is using Drones as assassination platforms especially when they really never know whom they are killing.
Two things led to this situation the first is the elimination of the draft and the second was outsourcing much of the military labor to sub contractors. The elimination of the draft produced a professional military which is not good and the second created paramilitary of private companies that recruited special operations and other highly training operators who became an under the table US military, without much oversight. Both of these have allowed the politicians to conduct operations that may seem legitimate but are not. The result of this will be a military that will not see anything wrong with conducting operations in the interior of the country.