Could SEAL Team 6 have captured bin Laden alive? Should training for elite military forces prioritize thoughtfulness at the risk of indecision?
Plans for assaulting bin Laden's hideout and for subsequent interrogation suggest that orders were to capture him alive if possible. Let's assume no implicit suggestion to assassinate bin Laden, and put aside the location in Pakistan.
The question then is training.
In training elite military forces, countries make choices. Exaggerating the choice, do you nurture robotic killers, risking thoughtless acts, or philosopher warriors, risking indecision?
Every country effectively trains for physical and combat capabilities. Navy Sea-Air-Land Teams, the SEAL Teams, are often America's elite.
Only about 20 percent of candidates make it through intense training. After years on a regular SEAL Team, members apply to join SEAL Team 6. Only about 50 percent make it. There is little doubt that Team 6 has the skills to be effective killers.
Training to make thoughtful decisions is trickier. The circumstances are often intense, quick, and dangerous. Thinking takes time; extra time creates deadly risks.
Nevertheless, in theory the careful use of deadly force is learned by every police cadet. Similarly, ex-SEAL, Dr. Greitens, states "...we can be thoughtful, disciplined and proportional in our use of force." Regarding bin Laden's death, ex-SEAL, Lalo Roberti says, "For us to take a shot, it must be bad…"
Apparently, SEAL Team 6 was trusted to make thoughtful, on-the-spot, rapid decisions about life or death.
Do you agree? Or, could bin Laden have been captured? What would you emphasize in training? Should thoughtfulness have higher priority, at the risk of indecision?
By William Vocke
For more information see:
Elizabeth Bumiller, "Killing puts a spotlight on a secret elite force,"
International Herald Tribune, May 6, 2011 p. 1+
Eric Schmitt, Thom Shanker, and David E. Sanger, "Commandos were ready
to take on Pakistanis," International Herald Tribune, May 11, 2011,
p.1+
Michiko Kakutani, "Muscle
Memory: The Training of Navy Seals Commandos," The New York Times,
May 8, 2011.
Photo Credits in order of Appearance:
Pete
Souza
Sajjad
Ali Qureshi
Eddie
Harrison/ U.S. Navy
Jayme
Pastoric/ U.S. Navy
Ashley
Myers/ U.S. Navy
Shauntae
Hinkle-Lymas
John
Scorza/ U.S. Navy
Keith
Williams/ U.S. Navy
Charles
McCain
Ashly
Myers/ U.S. Navy
Eddie
Harrison/ U.S. Navy
