
One of the impressionistic illustrations for The Intercept’s recent report, “The Crimes of SEAL Team 6.” The report has value, but it also has flaws of intent and context.
Officially, it was a capture-or-kill mission. The target, regarded as a holy man by many of his fanatical followers, was considered a key element in an insurgency that had flooded an already unstable country with blood.
While the target certainly would have had intelligence value, and his capture would have been a significant propaganda coup, the circumstances of the mission made capture unrealistic, practically. And nobody really wanted the target alive anyway.
The operators knew full well what their true mission was: a targeted killing. Some might call it assassination.
Diligent intelligence work, developing native sources opposed to or threatened by the insurgency, had pinpointed the location of the target, and now the operators were moving stealthily to assault the target’s position. A combination of stealth, lethal speed and precision small-arms fire ensured that the target went down before he was fully aware of danger.
Creating a fiery diversion, the operators made a successful exfil and returned to their base with a successful operation under their belt.
Not everyone considered the mission a success, however. Critics of the small but savage war accused the operators of cold-blooded murder of an unarmed man — perhaps even the wrong man entirely. Angry voices called for investigations into what some were calling an atrocity.
The operators shrugged off the criticism. They were the men on the line; they weren’t inclined to heed the second-guessing of military bureaucrats or civilians back home who could not conceive of the nature of the war they were fighting. If there was any judgment to be cast, they would handle it themselves. And they had more work to do.
*
If you’re thinking that that scene played out somewhere in Afghanistan, or Iraq — or maybe Abbottabad, Pakistan — some time in the past 18 years, you’ve missed the x-ring. But just barely; you’re in the black.
The targeted killing described above was the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham’s mission to assassinate the M’limo, believed to be the spiritual leader of the Matable Rebellion of 1896 in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Though the elements of the mission are over 100 years old, they would have been the same on the Ohio Valley frontier in 1780, and they are still familiar today.
Regardless of technology that allows drone pilots in Nevada to hit targets in the Northwest Frontier Territory of Pakistan or that allows desk-bound intelligence agents to listen in on the communications of terrorists half-way around the world, the elements of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) are instantly familiar to a student of Frontier Partisan warfare. And some of those elements are dark, indeed.
*
Last week, the investigative website The Intercept published an in-depth report entitled The Crimes of SEAL Team 6. I discovered it through a link provided by SOFREP.com (Special Operations Forces Report), where co-founder Jack Murphy, an Army Special Forces veteran, has been raising concerns about the conduct of some SEAL elements for a while now — and, he says, taking heat for it in the Spec-Ops community.
The heavily-sourced piece by journalist Matthew Cole depicts a unit gone rogue:
Officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, SEAL Team 6 is today the most celebrated of the U.S. military’s special mission units. But hidden behind the heroic narratives is a darker, more troubling story of “revenge ops,” unjustified killings, mutilations, and other atrocities — a pattern of criminal violence that emerged soon after the Afghan war began and was tolerated and covered up by the command’s leadership.
It’s long and there are some gruesome bits, but I encourage you to read the whole thing. Cole’s piece hits hard and should provoke a great deal of discussion. Unfortunately, the discussion seems to be relegated to an echo-chamber in the precincts of the angry, “anti-colonialist” left. There seems to be no traction for the story anywhere else. That’s largely The Intercept’s own doing. They tout “adversarial journalism,” which is why, for all its depth and range, The Crimes of SEAL Team 6 ultimately comes off reading like a hit piece. The Intercept has an ax — or in this case a tomahawk — to grind with the role and actions of the United States in the world, and, while I think the reporting in the piece is solid, the bias is apparent. To my way of thinking, the biggest weakness of the piece is that it lacks a vital piece of context: The purported conduct of a number of SEAL operators is not an aberration of the GWOT — it is a common feature of Frontier Partisan warfare, played out across centuries on the bloody edges of empire.
*
Even something as superficial as the reaction to the physical appearance of “rogue warriors” is consistent across time. Cole reports that some military personnel had problems with the rough-hewn appearance of SEAL operators.
It was at this point that some critics in the military complained that SEAL Team 6 — with their full beards and arms, legs, and torsos covered in tattoos — looked like members of a biker gang.
That description echoes the depiction of the barbaric appearance of the Texas Rangers in the Mexican War of 1846-48.
General Zachary Taylor appreciated the work the Rangers did, but he had issues with their indiscipline and their roughneck appearance:
“One species of mounted force, peculiar to the western frontier of the United States is … efficient. The inhabitants of that frontier, from their vicinity to hostile Indians, are well practiced in partisan warfare, and although they will not easily submit to discipline, yet take the field in rough, uncouth habiliments, and, following some leader chosen for his talent and bravery, perform partisan duties in a manner hardly to be surpassed.”
The appearance of the Rangers terrified the Mexicans — and their fear of Los Tejanos Diablos was justified, since the Rangers considered their war with their southern neighbors a blood feud. The Texans were not always terribly particular about whether the Mexicans they killed were combatants.
One citizen wrote:
“My heart almost failed me… The Texians, with their coarse hickory shirts and trowsers confined by a leather strap to their hips, their slouched hats, and their sweat and powder-begrimed faces certainly presented a most brigandish appearance!”

The Texas Rangers in the Mexican War presented a ‘brigandish’ appearance that frightened the Mexican population, incensed Regular Army officers and amused Easterners. ‘Brigandish’ is 19th Century for ‘biker gang.’
According to Cole, the operators of Red Squadron, whose “mascot” was a native warrior, took that identity very seriously:
Since the 1980s, when Red Team was first created, there were many operators in the unit who had experienced a “metamorphosis of identity and persona” into Native American warriors.
That, too, is not uncommon in frontier history. Captain Samuel Brady’s Rangers, who patrolled the western Pennsylvania frontier during the American Revolution, prided themselves on looking exactly like the warriors they pursued. The disguise was practical — it helped them infiltrate “Indian Country.” But it also set Brady’s Rangers apart from other militia units, and men of the 18th Century were no less compelled by the cool factor than we are today.
The SEALs’ identification with native warriors was given a sharp edge — literally — and another connection with the heritage of the Frontier Partisans:
In keeping with Red Squadron’s appropriation of Native American culture, (the squadron commander) came up with the idea to bestow 14-inch hatchets on each SEAL who had a year of service in the squadron. The hatchets, paid for by private donations Howard solicited, were custom-made by Daniel Winkler, a highly regarded knife maker in North Carolina who designed several of the period tomahawks and knives used in the movie “The Last of the Mohicans.” Winkler sells similar hatchets for $600 each. The hatchets (the commander) obtained were stamped with a Native American warrior in a headdress and crossed tomahawks.
At first the hatchets appeared to be merely symbolic, because such heavy, awkward weapons had no place in the gear of a special operator. “There’s no military purpose for it,” a former Red Squadron operator told me. “But they are a great way of being part of a team. It was given as an honor, one more step to strive for, another sign that you’re doing a good job.”
For some of (the) men, however, the hatchets soon became more than symbolic as they were used at times to hack dead fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Others used them to break doorknobs on raids or kill militants in hand-to-hand combat.

Daniel Winkler’s knives and ’hawks are treasured by warriors, historical reenactors and modern-day frontiersmen.
I would dispute characterizing a tomahawk as heavy and awkward. And from New York to New Zealand from the 17th Century through the 19th Century, they were part of virtually every native warrior or frontiersman’s kit.
One SEAL interviewed for the story thought that the hatchets were a bad look:
“Guys are going out every night killing everything. The hatchet was too intimate, too closely aligned with a tomahawk, to have been a good idea.”
*
One of the accusations that comes up again and again throughout Crimes is that SEALs mutilated the bodies of dead enemies. Such acts are expressly forbidden under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and you may recall that three U.S. Marines got in serious trouble for pissing on the corpses of several dead enemy fighters. The incident came to light because one of them photographed the episode and shared the pix.
The most common form of mutilation among the SEALs was “canoeing” — shooting a corpse at the top of the forehead, which blows the head out in a “V” or canoe shape, exposing the brains. It became a kind of signature for the operators. Reportedly, one of the SEALs who took out Osama bin Laden canoed him, which is one explanation as to why ID photographs were never released.
If that did happen — and it seems so — it was a mission-compromising act of indiscipline, which is a problem in itself, regardless of how you feel about blowing the brains out of the most wanted man in the world.
But it bears keeping in mind that mutilation of enemies is a primal aspect of warfare. Many a many “solid citizen” who came of age on the frontier had a dried up old scalp somewhere among their possibles. Crimes notes that pieces of skin or scalp were often requested from SEAL missions for DNA testing and identification of al Qaeda operatives. It shouldn’t be surprising that such actions might lead to trophy-taking.

True West Magazine’s Bob Boze Bell depicts Mickey Free with the head of an Apache militant. Click the link above for the True West story.
And we should not forget that warfare in Afghanistan in particular has always carried a special edge of savagery, including mutilation of the dead — and in the case of Pathan tribesmen — mutilation of the wounded . Ask the British; ask the Russians. Ask Kipling…
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Putting the actions of the SEALs in the context of an old tradition of frontier warfare does not excuse conduct that is a violation of military law and human decency, nor does it excuse lies and cover-ups that erode the integrity of everyone involved. But it should raise the awareness of those charged with building culture and instilling discipline that these kinds of actions tend to evolve naturally out of the primal nature of a certain kind of irregular warfare. Then, perhaps, greater vigilance can be applied to see that such practices don’t catch hold.
*
When revenge is part of the motivation, the potential for atrocity grows.
The ugly, primal nature of the combat they were to engage in at a relentless tempo for 15 years was set for SEAL Team 6 early in the Afghan campaign. As The Crimes of SEAL Team 6 reports:
Neil “Fifi” Roberts, a member of the SEAL recon team, fell 10 feet from the back of a Chinook and was stranded as the helicopter took fire from foreign al Qaeda fighters who were already on the snow-covered mountaintop. Two hours passed before the SEALs in the damaged helicopter were able to return. They didn’t know it, but Roberts was already dead, shot at close range in the head shortly after his helicopter departed the mountaintop. A Predator drone video feed filmed an enemy fighter standing over Roberts’s body for two minutes, trying to behead the dead American with a knife.
Roberts’s death, and the subsequent operations in eastern Afghanistan during the winter 2002 deployment, left an indelible impression on SEAL Team 6, especially on Red Team. According to multiple SEAL Team 6 sources, the events of that day set off a cascade of extraordinary violence. As the legend of SEAL Team 6 grew, a rogue culture arose that operated outside of the Navy’s established mechanisms for command and investigation. Parts of SEAL Team 6 began acting with an air of impunity that disturbed observers within the command. Senior members of SEAL Team 6 felt the pattern of brutality was not only illegal but rose to the level of war crimes.
“To understand the violence, you have to begin at Roberts Ridge,” said one former member of SEAL Team 6 who deployed several times to Afghanistan. “When you see your friend killed, recover his body, and find that the enemy mutilated him? It’s a schoolyard mentality. ‘You guys want to play with those rules?’ ‘OK.’” Although this former SEAL acknowledged that war crimes are wrong, he understood how they happen. “You ask me to go living with the pigs, but I can’t go live with pigs and then not get dirty.”
Again, the history of Frontier Partisan warfare provides a clear precedent for members of an elite irregular unit going off the rails in acting out vengeance for a dead and mutilated comrade…
In 1901, the British Empire was fighting a nasty, brutal guerilla campaign in South Africa against Boer “bitter enders.” Small, ragged but well-armed groups of highly mobile Boer riders (such units were called Commandos) blew up trains and hit garrisons in lightning raids, escaping into the vastness of the veld.
The British turned to “colonials” to fight the way the Boers fought. Canadians and Australians and some South African frontiersmen, all of whom lived in the saddle, were formed into irregular anti-partisan mounted infantry units. One of these was the Bushveldt Carbineers, and among them rode an Australian bush poet and horse breaker of English birth, Harry Harbord “Breaker” Morant.

Breaker Morant’s dark story is an example of what can happen in the back of beyond when an irregular force is tasked to fight a dirty war.
Morant’s commander, Captain John Hunt, was wounded and left for dead when his patrol was ambushed while conducting a raid on a Boer commando holed up in a farmhouse. Hunt’s body was terribly mutilated — Morant believed by Boers (though a descendent of the man who killed Hunt says it was native auxiliaries who mutilated Hunt and other corpses).
Morant arrived after on the scene after Hunt had been buried, but the reports of what had happened to the man he considered his “best friend on this earth” sent Morant into a rage. He was described by BVC trooper George Witton, who would stand trial with him, as being “like a man demented.” The BVC chased the Boers and caught them in a camp in a ravine. In his lust for revenge, Morant opened fire too soon and most of the Boers escaped. One, a man named Visser, was shot through both ankles and couldn’t flee. He was wearing items of khaki clothing. In his demented state, Morant convinced himself the clothing came from Hunt’s body. He had Visser propped up and a firing squad mustered to blow him into eternity.
Later that month, Morant and Handcock led a patrol out to intercept a column bringing in prisoners from Viljoen’s commando. Morant had the prisoners pulled out and shot down by the side of the road, under the muzzles of a firing squad of Enfield Rifles, Caliber .303.
A German minister, Reverend Heese, who had spoken to the prisoners despite Morant’s orders not to do so, was shortly found shot dead in his carriage on the high road to the town of Pietersburg.
Morant and Handcock later intercepted three other Boer commandos and, after they surrendered, disarmed them and shot them down.
Morant’s last operation was clean. He led a patrol on a 130-mile trek to track down an Irish-Boer leader named Kelly. The Breaker was under orders from a Major Lenehan to capture the Boer field-cornet alive. Morant’s men stealthily approached Kelly’s laager (encampment), rushed it in the pre-dawn hours and Morant took Kelly — who was not wearing any British Khaki — into custody and took him safely back to Pietersburg.
With peace talks in the offing and an end to the grinding guerrilla war in sight, the British authorities acted to clean up festering sore they had allowed to go untreated in the Transvaal. The BVC was suddenly disbanded and Morant, Witton and Lt. Peter Handcock were arrested and charged with war crimes.
At his trial, Morant angrily dismissed criticisms of the actions of the BVC:
“We were out fighting the Boers, not sitting comfortably behind barb-wire entanglements; we got them and shot them under Rule .303!”
All three were found guilty. Witton was sentenced to prison. Morant and Handcock were executed by firing squad.
*
Nobody quoted The Crimes of SEAL Team 6 is calling for the execution of Seal Team 6 operators for war crimes. But there is a question of accountability and integrity that can’t simply be dismissed. It is worth noting that we aren’t hearing such dark tales about other elements of Joint Special Operations Command — ‘Delta Force’, for instance. Nor are we seeing unseemly public spats and embarrassing acts of naked self-aggrandizement in other JSOC units. I’m not in a position to know why that is, but it’s not hard to hazard a guess: It likely has to do with leadership, discipline and the inculcation of a low-profile culture. The SEALs’ rock star status, in the end, does the unit no favors.
It is well to bring these matters to light. We should understand and confront what it is that our most storied warrior elite has done in our name in the GWOT — the dark and forbidden along with the heroic. The question becomes, what do we do with that understanding? If it truly is about discipline and accountability and the retention of honor — with the best interests of the warrior and the service in mind — probing the darkness is essential. I don’t think that’s really what The Intercept is about. There is an undercurrent in The Crimes of SEAL Team 6 of an attitude that is common among the self-loathing far left: that the U.S. and the West are really no better than the enemies we fight — or that we’re actually the “bad guys” in this tale. That, I categorically reject.
A full and well-balanced understanding has been the path I have tried to walk since I started this blog. We know that dark deeds have been done over and over again, in the mountains and the deserts, the forests and the plains of North America, Africa, New Zealand, and, yes, in Afghanistan, too, for many a long age, by men very much like the bearded, tattoo-covered warriors of SEAL Team 6. As readers of my book Warriors of the Wildlands have discovered, valor and viciousness, nobility and savagery, can abide in the same place and in the same man.
Such is the nature of Frontier Partisan warfare.
*
UPDATE:
The commander of SEAL Team 6 has circulated a memo, obtained by The Intercept, to members of the command in response to The Intercept’s two-year investigation into the unit’s war crimes and subsequent cover-ups. In the memo, the commander claimed the article was “full of grievous, accusatory claims” and allegations that had been “previously investigated and determined to be not substantiated.”
“The article alleges involvement of ST-6 personnel in law of armed conflict violations, including accusations of cover up by senior officials,” the memo continued. “The 41-page online article goes into great detail on various operations naming specific people and operations dating back to 2002 up to 2011.”
“While this article appears damning on many members of our team and most likely evokes strong emotions,” the commander wrote, “we must be mindful about what a journalist can do who latches on to unfounded claims and is willing to print based on limited evidence.”
The commander’s letter does not dispute any facts or details in our January 10 report, which describes, in detail, accounts provided by former SEAL Team 6 leaders of what they believed were war crimes committed by members of the unit in Afghanistan and Iraq that were largely ignored or covered up by senior officers.
The memo obtained by The Intercept advised military personnel to avoid commenting on or acknowledging “The Crimes of SEAL Team 6,” even “among yourselves or with others via personal electronic devices,” in order to “maintain the highest OPSEC posture and limit the spread of the article.”
As a friend pointed out, the fact that The Intercept obtained the memo indicates that ST6 has an internal leak, which is interesting in its own right.
deuce says
Damn. This has to be one of your best posts in awhile, Jim. I like your veiled reference to Tippecanoe.
Regarding mutilations in Afghanistan, there is the case of John Nicholson. He and his brother were part of the rearguard for the British forces withdrawing from Afghanistan in 1842 after the avenging of the Elphinstone debacle. Nicholson’s brother was found missing while on mounted guard duty. His body was found in a state that has become symbolic of Afghan partisan warfare over the centuries: his severed genitals were in his mouth.
One would imagine that Nicholson, who had himself endured a hellish captivity in Ghazni, would have been driven mad with vengeance and blood-lust by the incident, but such was not the case. He went on to be a good, if harsh, administrator of the North-West Territory bordering Afghanistan. He was widely considered the deadliest man in the subcontinent. There was even a Hindu cult that formed around him (which he vehemently opposed).
A war-band of Pashtuns (ie, of the same ethnic group which mutilated his brother) came south and volunteered to be his personal comitatus. He took their service and they stayed loyal through the Sepoy Mutiny. After Nicholson died retaking Delhi, they rode back to the Afghan hills. They served Nikalseyn and Nikalseyn was no more.
The father of a good friend of mine in high school (part Inuit, incidentally) served in Vietnam. He had photos of ears he took from the Viet Cong he killed. That man was a good father, served a long term as mayor of his small town and ended up working for SRS helping disabled people. It is the totality of one’s actions, and how one finishes the race, that count.
JimC says
That is great stuff Deuce. Thanks for the kind word — and I want more Nicholson!
Craig Rullman says
Extremely well done.
JimC says
Thank you, amigo. Worked hard on it.
Craig Rullman says
And I LOVE my Winkler. Will take down a tree, and he used to have a demo vid where he cut a car in half with one.
JimC says
Why haven’t I seen the Winkler? Why?
Matthew says
Regarding assassination, have you ever read one of Donald Hamilton’s (who wrote a few westerns of note) books about government assassin Matt Helm?
In one of the books, he is sent to Sweden to kill an enemy operative and is betrayed by a member of Military Intelligence that who is horrified that the American Government employs assassins. Helm notes wryly that she probably had no problem providing data to the missile command in order to nuke cities filled with civilians in case of the third world war, but you send one man with a gun to kill one person a she is horrified.
As the mutilations go, they are horrible but in the history of war crimes they aren’t all that horrible.
JimC says
I’ve read some of Donald Hamilton’s stuff. Top-drawer pulp fiction. He was an outdoorsman and shooter, too.
Matthew says
“Top-drawer pulp fiction” that describes it. Hamilton could pack more in a 200 hundred page novel than a lot of writers do in twice that.
deuce says
Two more military John Nicholsons, the son serving in Afghanistan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Nicholson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Nicholson,_Jr.
They are distant cousins of Nikalseyn. Odd how the same lineage keeps being drawn back halfway around the globe to that bleak, bloody land.
Thom Eley says
Tonight we ride, you bastards dare
We’ll kill the wild Apache for the bounty on his hair
Wow, Jim. This is a great one and a heavy one. Rule .303 certainly plays out there still. In Vietnam, there were fellows who wore necklaces of ears and one fellow had a necklace of noses. In a little known Order by a Marine Corps Colonel, who later became Commandant, stated that anyone who was seen with any “jewelry” made of body parts, would have said body part cut off the individual by the Colonel. I truly believe he would have done it. He had no sense-of-humor that we were aware of. I think that in war, soldiers can get wrapped up with the killing and take revenge for their dead comrades. My Lai was a good example. It can be hard to keep the troops in line sometime, but a good commander needs to do it. I worry about the SOG’s developing a culture of “kill’em all and let God sort them out.”
Hawks were used very effectively in Vietnam. They were lightweight and not heavy like some of the hawks in the photo. They were great when you wanted to take someone out without waking up the whole world. Also the K-Bar has been effective since before WWII.
If you want to read some good SOG stuff read about Lt. j.g Thomas R. Norris (a Navy Seal without a beard and with short hair) and VNN Petty Officer Third Class Nguyen Van Kie and their rescue of USAF Lieutenant Colonel Iceal E. “Gene” Hambleton that was portrayed most inaccurately in the movie Bat21. It has been called the greatest search and rescue mission “of all time,” well, at least in Vietnam. Don’t watch the movie but read The Rescue of Bat 21 (1999) by Darrel D. Whitcomb (not the book Bat*21. The Air Force Captain Bartholomew Clark (Call sign: “Birddog”) played by Danny Glover was actually a Marine Lt. Larry F. Potts (a Naval Gunfire Spotter and an African American) and Lt. Bruce C. Walker flying USAF OV10A. They were the folks initially on the scene but they were shot down and lost. I wear Lt. Potts MIA bracelet almost every day. When I was recently in Vietnam, I went to the spot where Lt. Norris snagged the Lt.Col. from the water. Simply amazing.
Some interesting facts, the operation was run by Marine Col. Al Grey. Lt. Norris was told to apply for a Medal of Honor but refused. Someone else applied for him and he received the MOH, much to his dismay. “You shouldn’t get medals for doing your job.” That is why many people turned down Purple Hearts in VN and WWII. I don’t deserve an award for not getting out of the way and being a target! Nguyen Van Kie received a Navy Cross. Lt.Col. Hambleton received the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal (United States) and a Purple Heart for his actions during this mission. Basically medals for getting shot down and not having any idea where you were. However, there were a number of folks that had that happen to them. I’ve spent a number of hours in an OV-10, and when you are zooming around looking for bad guys and calling in fast movers or artillery, it is easy to get disoriented. However, you quickly figure out where you are, something an electronic warfare officer in bomber might not do.
Read Chris Robbins The Ravens or a recent book out In the Lair of the Raven. They were special ops forward air controllers working in LAOS, and they didn’t get out of control until they came back to the O Club! They did spoil a lot of folks’ days, and the specifically targeted a few folks.
I didn’t mean to get carried away about Bat*21 and The Ravens, but the real stories are so much better than the movies. One of best for those of you interested in aviation, SOG and Vietnam. BTW, in Coronado, CA, there is a SEAL bar (a real dive) and, if you are a non-SEAL, you’re might get your ass kicked.
JimC says
Fantastic stuff Thom. I have a buddy who was one of those spec ops FAc guys. I’ll see if I can dig up the Nugget story I did on him. He’s a board member of Sisters Folk Festival.
john roberts says
I loved the Matt Helm books, too. Absolutely unsentimental and realistic. Matt prefers to use a .22 Colt Woodsman and if at all possible he shoots them in the back of the head. He’s also handy with a knife and uses principles of Western swordsmanship. He considers Asian martial arts strictly for amateurs and kids. Cold-blooded as they come. I never met Hamilton, but my wife tells me he used to come to music parties at her house in Santa Fe. He played guitar and sang Swedish folk songs. He was born in Sweden and emigrated to the States at an early age. He moved back to Sweden a few years before his death in 2006 at the age of 90. I wish I’d had a chance to talk with him.
JimC says
Yes, he was a character, in the best possible sense. I bet the matt Helm books are available through Kindle. Hmmm…
I would still love to hear some of your wife’s music….
Matthew says
His father was actually a Swedish count. They gave up the right to the title when they became US citizens. I don’t think titles are as important in Sweden as say Britain, though.
Alexander Lauber says
“…In combat, you act without passion and without hate, you respect defeated enemies, and you never abandon your dead, your wounded, or your arms.”
From the French Foreign Legion. I was struck by the cold, indifferent, perhaps “businesslike” attitude in their oath.
JimC says
“It’s just business. It’s not personal.”
John Cornelius says
Great post, Jim, and quite thought-provoking. I would wager that if a journalist was “embedded” with Seal Team Six for a prolonged spell, they would have a significantly different take on the issues you enumerated. Is would be abnormal to fail to adopt some of the baser aspects of your adversaries, and detrimental to your mission.
Although it was written in a piece of fiction, I have always found this to be profound and simple.
“In any conflict, the boundaries of behavior are defined by the party which cares least about morality.”
Randy Wayne White in “The Mangrove Coast”
John C.
JimC says
That quote was in mind as I wrote the piece. I don’t know anything about Cole’s background, but in general I think there is a problem with journalists grappling with such matters who have never been punched in the face. Sebstian Junger, for instance, would have come at this from a completely different position, and with a lot more context.
Traven Torsvan says
I recently started Gerald Hanley’s “Warriors” about his experiences in Somalia during the second world war. I think this quote from the beginning really sums up what you were getting at in your post
“In the early months of isolation in a wilderness, particularly when burdened with responsibilities which may suddenly turn dangerous, among actively violent and savage people, a sort of hysteria develops in the character. Ferocity will be replied to ferociously, out of fear, and fear is hatred. One’s first sight of ferocity arouses hatred for the ferocious, and one is liable to respond with savagery. It is hard to describe the hatred and contempt one can feel for tribesmen who have slain the women of their enemies, or caused them to die of thirst. Later, when hysteria has been replaced by acceptance of isolation – the fact that one is hundreds of miles out of reach of ‘rescue’ should anything go wrong, one feels merely contempt for savagery. You do not hate the active savage anymore. You realise instead the size of the pitiful value he places on the need to kill, the need for revenge, the desire to humiliate his enemy (which includes you), especially when thousands of helpless people were being slain by bombs in European cities every night. One knew then that one was one with the savage, while not being so innocently honest about one’s savagery as the desert savage. Then despair tries to set in. There is nothing like isolation in an atmosphere of electric violence for bringing before one’s mind the understanding that the varnish of two thousand years is so thin as to be transparent. It is living in civilisation that keeps us civilised. It is very surprising, and alarming at first, how swiftly it vanishes when one is threatened by other men, men of almost mindless resolve. They know if you are frightened of them. They know too if you will kill as readily as they. But the fear does slowly seep in, if you are isolated for long enough among warriors who hate what you represent, a threat to their joyous wars.”
JimC says
Wow. Just… wow. That’s really strong. Thank you for that.
Matthew says
Since it’s Robert E. Howard’s birthday, his letters to H.P. Lovecraft reflected a similar point of view.
Also there’s this quote (which deuce poster here before)
“break the skin of civilization and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed.”
Hazel says
Great history, Jim. We are proud to have the most professional armed forces in the history of civilization, and we got there by learning and evolving and following the rule of law.
In that regard, I don’t see the same nefarious intent lurking in the shadows that you imagined drove the Intercept piece. To the contrary, from beginning to end, Cole threads the needle of the breakdown in discipline that started with the “day after day kill or be killed” demands of ST-6, and which resulted in a break from the elite ethics that define our elite forces. If there is a bogeyman in Cole’s narrative, it is the mission creep and unprecedented reliance on special forces to conduct routine missions. Since we are entering year 18 of the war in the Land Where Empires End, I would say that this is a fair critique, to put it mildly.
JimC says
Thanks Hazel. I tend to agree that subsequent events confirm a serious breakdown in ethic and culture.
JimC says
It is worth noting that in a 2022 podcast with retired SEAL Andy Stumpf, Cole repeatedly noted that good men do bad things and bad men do good things in the context of irregular warfare, a complexity that usually goes unrecognized. That principle is borne out over and over again in frontier history, and is, in fact, one of my primary takeaways from a lifetime of study in this field.