Elite U.S. Forces Critique Themselves: Overused, Underled, Raid-Obsessed

An examination of the culture in the Army’s Green Berets, the Navy SEALs and other special operations troops found shortcomings but no “systemic ethics problem,” after a series of misconduct allegations.

America’s special operations forces, like the Army’s Green Berets and the Navy SEALs, have developed a problematic culture that overemphasizes combat “to the detriment of leadership, discipline and accountability,” according to a sweeping review conducted by the military’s Special Operations Command.
Time on the battlefield is seen as “the ultimate expression of competence,” the review said, and those with combat experience “are held as almost an infallible standard bearer for the rest of the organization to emulate — seemingly regardless if it is a positive or negative standard.”
The review was ordered in response to a series of troubling episodes of misconduct involving special operations troops, including allegations of sexual assault and unlawful killings. It was begun in August, a month after the court-martial of a Navy SEAL platoon chief, Edward Gallagher, on charges of murdering a captive and other war crimes, a case that attracted national attention and ended in acquittal on all but a minor charge.

Mr. Gallagher, a decorated combat veteran, was reported to Navy investigators by members of his platoon, who described him as appearing obsessed with killing during a 2017 deployment in Iraq. He denied any wrongdoing. Now retired from the Navy, Mr. Gallagher lashed out at his accusers this week in a video posted on social media.

The Special Operations Command’s review found no “systemic ethics problem” in its forces, which include elite units from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. But it found “remarkable similarity” in the cultural issues it uncovered across the command, from entry-level trainees to elite counterterror units like Delta Force and SEAL Team 6.

The American military has greatly expanded its special forces since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and has come to rely heavily on them in conflicts around the world; they were used in more than 90 countries last year. That may be too many, according to the report, which recommends a start-from-scratch review of all deployments.

Missions by special forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, the report says, often boil down to little more than “raids” — assaulting targets and killing enemy fighters — which some operators bluntly refer to as “kicking in doors and shooting people in the face.”
Eighteen years of such missions, the report says, have diverted attention from the other specialized challenges the special forces are meant to tackle and the skills they require. And a tendency to split up units in the field to conduct missions leads to troops operating far from the commanders who supervise them.

The frequent deployments have also bred problems in the training and career pipeline, from raw recruits up through the leadership ranks, the report says: an overemphasis on physical fitness and workouts for trainees, and an overemphasis on weapons and tactics among field leaders, often to the detriment of training in leadership and ethical standards.
Trainees who enter the elite forces directly from civilian life, rather than transferring in, are most at risk for developing “an unhealthy sense of entitlement” that could lead to problems later on, the authors found. Instructors chosen for their combat prowess may lack the “appropriate balance of character and competence” needed for the job.
This review follows congressionally mandated studies of the Special Operations Command’s culture and accountability in 2018, and its ethics in 2019 — studies whose recommendations have not been fully implemented, the report says.

Mr. Gallagher, 40, retired from the Navy soon after President Trump blocked SEAL commanders from kicking him out of the elite commando force. Since then he has been endorsing products and has met with Mr. Trump. But media reports continued to focus on his case, including an episode of “The Weekly,” produced by The New York Times, that was released in late December.

In response, a three-minute video posted on Monday on his Facebook and Instagram pages assails his accusers as liars and cowards, identifying five of them by name, rank and duty assignment and labeling them with insulting nicknames.
Mr. Gallagher’s video includes photos of the SEALs, including one now assigned to SEAL Team 6. It also highlights the name and photo of the lead Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent on his case.

“Even though I went to trial and exposed all the lies that were said about me by certain cowards in my platoon and found not guilty, there are those to this day who refuse to accept that fact,” Mr. Gallagher says in the video. “I wanted to put this all behind me and move on with my life. Unfortunately, the fight to clear my name is not over. The truth has never been truly exposed about what really happened. You may think you know, but you have no idea. For those who have, and continue to slander my name, the truth is coming.”
Mr. Gallagher’s video was not the first time his accusers were identified publicly; they were named in news reports during the trial and were seen in excerpts from Navy investigative videos published by The Times in December.

But the SEALs, reached by phone on Wednesday, said they were concerned that Mr. Gallagher had highlighted them in his video. They said they had received many messages from comrades expressing dismay that a former fellow SEAL would try to unmask them, potentially jeopardizing future missions.
Timothy Parlatore, Mr. Gallagher’s lawyer, said the video was “a direct response to the New York Times video,” and said his client was “not going to be silent” about news coverage he felt was “knowingly false.”
In addition to posting the video, Mr. Gallagher also gave a three-hour interview to the podcast “Cleared Hot,” hosted by another former SEAL, Andy Stumpf. In it, Mr. Gallagher spoke of feeling abandoned by his command when he was arrested, and said that SEALs in his platoon had made false accusations about him because they could not meet his standards.