“The Abbottabad Raid and the Theory of Special Operations”, 2021-06 (; backlinks):
When “The Theory of Special Operations” was written in 1993 by then Commander William H. McRaven, USN, Al Qaeda was barely on the strategic horizon. Nevertheless, this thesis helped shape the denouement of the horrible tragedy that befell the world on 11 September 2001.
This article describes McRaven’s work and traces its influence on the 2011 Abbottabad Raid. It also identifies how the theory might be modified to better capture the civil-military nexus at the apex of the strategic use of special operations forces.
…Admiral William H. McRaven, USN (retired) was asked during an on-line video presentation to the faculty and students at his alma mater if his studies at the Naval Postgraduate School influenced his career after graduation. McRaven, a former member of the Navy’s Sea Air and Land (SEAL) force, was unequivocal in his response: ‘I took the foundations of my thesis, the thesis on special operations, and I applied that to every mission I went on. Sometimes I’m asked did you use that on the Bin Laden raid—of course I did’.
…After reading McRaven’s narrative of the Skorzeny raid, it is hard to escape the conclusion that he unintentionally offers a way of overcoming the inherent constraint on behavior encapsulated by John Farnam’s ‘laws of stupid as amended’: you can hang out with stupid people, or go to stupid places, or be out at stupid times, or do stupid things, but doing two or more of these activities simultaneously will lead to highly unpleasant consequences.