US special forces losing discipline over repeated deployments: Pentagon
The US Defense Department has warned that repeated deployments by US special forces have affected discipline within the ranks, urging changes in oversight following a series of scandals.
Near-constant deployments by special forces to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Africa have reduced to a minimum the resting times that ensure unit cohesion, said the Pentagon report published Tuesday.
“We have a ‘can do’ culture with a bias toward action,” said General Richard Clarke, commander of US Special Operations Command, presenting the report.
“Nearly 20 years of continuous conflicts have imbalanced that culture to favor force employment and mission accomplishment over the routine activities that ensure leadership, accountability, and discipline,” Clarke said.
Active and retired officers, as well as civilians, in the Pentagon prepared the report, which was commissioned last summer after a series of disciplinary incidents.
US President Donald Trump intervened last year to pardon Navy SEAL platoon leader Edward Gallagher, who was accused of war crimes for stabbing to death a Daesh (ISIS) detainee and posing for a picture next to his corpse.
A US military jury acquitted Gallagher of murder but convicted him for taking the photographs.
The incident led to the firing of US Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, who said he and Trump did not share an understanding about “the key principles of good order and discipline.”
Trump also granted clemency to Matt Golsteyn, an ex-member of the US Army Green Berets. He was charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of an alleged Taliban bombmaker in Afghanistan in 2010.
Those cases fueled reports that the US military leadership was angered by Trump’s interference in disciplinary cases.