One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare

345 Pages·2013·4.953 MB·English

by  Linda Robinson

One Hundred VictOries
Also by lindA Robinson
Tell Me How This Ends:
General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq
Masters of Chaos:
The Secret History of the Special Forces
Linda rObinsOn

O n e H u n d r e d
V i c t O r i e s
speciaL Ops and
tHe Future OF
american WarFare
PublicAffairs | new yoRk
Copyright © 2013 by Linda Robinson
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Book Design by Janet Tingey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Robinson, Linda, 1962–
One hundred victories : special ops and the future of American warfare /
Linda Robinson.—First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61039-149-8 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-61039-150-4 (ebook)
1. Afghan War, 2001—Campaigns. 2. Afghan War, 2001—Commando
operations—United States. 3. Special operations (Military science)—
United States. 4. Counterinsurgency—Afghanistan—History—21st cen-
tury. 5. United States—Armed Forces—Afghanistan—History. 6. Taliban.
7. Afghanistan—Politics and government—2001. 8. Afghanistan—
History, Military—21st century. I. Title.
DS371.412.R62 2013
958.104’78—dc23
2013016787
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
“To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not
the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the
acme of skill.”
—sun Tzu

cOntents
cAsT of chARAcTeRs ix
inTRoducTion xiii
“You’ll Have to Kill a Lot of Men Like My Father” xiii
Missed Opportunities xvi
chApTeR 1: Hitting Targets 1
On the Hunt 1
Reeder’s Epiphany 9
chApTeR 2: Into the Villages 21
The Battle for Buy-In 21
Miller’s New Idea 25
From Black Ops to Village Ops 31
chApTeR 3: The Taliban’s Home 39
“Who Will Go with Me? 39
Maiwand 44
Summer of Assassinations 59
chApTeR 4: Paktika 65
Chamtu 65
Catastrophic Success 80
To Pirkowti Again 86
chApTeR 5: On the Border 93
ODA 3316 93
Fighting Uphill 101
Operation Sayaqa 103
chApTeR 6: The Burdens of Command 117
“Who Is Going to Take the Blame?” 117
Growing Pains 124
vii
viii Contents
chApTeR 7: On the Same Team … or Not 137
Hugger and Slugger 137
“We’re Not Going South, Are We?” 148
chApTeR 8: SEALs Do Foreign Internal Defense, Too 159
SEALs Take Charge 159
Commandos Raise the Bar 170
The Fallen 175
chApTeR 9: Good Enough? 181
West Paktika 181
Aziz Leads 192
chApTeR 10: Highway One 203
Uprising 203
Expulsion 208
chApTeR 11: Will the Valley Hold? 217
A Band of Brothers 217
The Last Team 225
chApTeR 12: The Endgame 241
Unity of Command at Last 241
Whither Local Police? 249
Afghan Special Ops to the Fore 257
chApTeR 13: The Future of Special Operations and
American Warfare 261
AuThoR’s noTe 269
noTes 275
selecTed bibliogRAphy 297
index 303
The photo insert appears between pages 136–137
cast OF cHaracters
(Listed in order of appearance. Military ranks are current as of July 2013.)
INTRODUCTION
Maj. Gen. Christopher Haas—CFSOCC-A commander, 2011–2012
Bismullah Khan Mohammedi—Tajik leader, minister of interior, minister of
defense
Col. Mark Schwartz—CJSOTF-A commander 2011–2012
CHAPTER 1: HITTING TARGETS
Maj. Gen. Edward Reeder—CFSOCC-A commander, 2009–2010
Lt. Col. Brad Moses—CJSOTF-A operations officer
Col. Pat Mahaney—battalion and deputy CFSOCC-A commander
Maj. Christopher Castelli—company commander
CHAPTER 2: INTO THE VILLAGES
Maj. Gen. Scott Miller—CFSOCC-A commander, 2010–2011
Command Sgt. Maj. J. R. Stigall—CFSOCC-A command sergeant major
Capt. Geno Paluso (Navy)—CFSOCC-A chief of staff
Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc—CJSOTF-A and deputy SOJTF-A commander
CHAPTER 3: THE TALIBAN’S HOME
Col. Chris Riga—Special Operations Task Force South commander,
2010–2011
Brig. Gen. Abdul Raziq—Afghan police general in Kandahar
ix