![\"31gallager-master675\"](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/02\/31gallager-master675.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A FEW months ago, my wife and I had dinner with a couple we didn\u2019t know very well. It was awkward at first, but there was wine, and conversation soon followed. At one point, the wife asked about my tour in Iraq, where I served four years as a cavalry officer. I began talking about the desert, the tribal politics and the day-to-day travails of counterinsurgency. \u201cThat\u2019s all fine,\u201d the husband interrupted. \u201cBut tell us about the super-soldiers. The Special-Ops guys. That\u2019s what people care about.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had no time for \u201cG.I. Joe.\u201d He wanted \u201cAmerican Sniper.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n He is not alone. The mythos of Special Operations has seized our nation\u2019s popular imagination, and has proved to be the one prism through which the public will engage with America\u2019s wars. From the box office to bookstores, the Special Ops commando \u2014 quiet and professional, stoic and square-jawed \u2014 thrives. That he works in the shadows, where missions are classified and enemy combatants come in silhouettes of night-vision green, is all for the better \u2014 details only complicate. We like our heroes sanitized, perhaps especially in murky times like these.<\/em><\/p>\n The age of the commando, though, is more than pop cultural fantasy emanating from Hollywood. It\u2019s now a significant part of our military strategy.<\/p>\n Last month the White House announced the nomination of Gen. Joseph L. Votel to lead United States Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in 20 countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria and Saudi Arabia \u2014 in other words, the hotbed of our geopolitical conflicts. General Votel has been the head of the military\u2019s Special Operations Command since 2014. His Central Command nomination represents a break in tradition; it has almost always gone to generals of more conventional backgrounds. Military analysts hailed it as a sign of the Obama administration\u2019s trust in, and reliance on, Special Operations.<\/p>\n Special Operations Command, or Socom, oversees all Special Operations Forces \u2014 our Delta Force operators, Navy SEALs, Green Berets, Army Rangers, among others. Special Operations personnel deployed to approximately 139 nations in 2015 \u2014 about 70 percent of the countries on the planet. While a vast majority of those missions involve training the defense forces of partner countries, a few involve direct combat.<\/p>\n