The incoming boss of U.S. Special Operations Command believes that defeating Islamic extremists will require more than brute force.
“We know that we cannot kill or talk our way to victory,” Vice Adm. Eric Olson declared earlier this year at the SenateArmed Services Committee budget hearing. “Our actions must demonstrate our values and be convincing locally, regionally and ultimately globally.”
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Olson, who was tapped by the White House to command nearly 50,000 special operators, is described by associates as a humble warrior who likes to brainstorm long-range strategies. His views are especially important because he is the Pentagon’s one and only global war commander.
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld designated SoCom, headquartered in Tampa, Fla., as the lead command in fighting terrorists. No longer a backwater focused on merely training and equipping “snake eaters,” SoCom now has a battle staff that can plan missions and deploy troops.
Rumsfeld signed a secret order in 2003 authorizing SoCom to devise a campaign plan that enables special operations forces to execute counter-terror missions in hours, not days.
Olson, the first Navy officer to run SoCom and the first Navy SEAL to earn a fourth star, wants to use SoCom’s expertise to teach governments in al Qaeda-infested regions how to use the tricks of counterterrorism, which include winning over the populace.
“This nation expects to have forces that can respond to the sound of guns with speed and skill and discipline,” Olson told senators last week at his uncontested Senate confirmation hearing. “The nation also expects to have forces that can operate with knowledge and wisdom well ahead of the sound of guns in order to prevent violence from erupting.”
Olson knows the covert side of the special operations. He belonged to Joint Special Operations Command, the secretive terrorist-hunting unit composed of Navy SEALs and Army Delta Force.
He earned a Silver Star for heroism for 1993’s famous urban battle in Mogadishu known as Black Hawk Down.
“Eric has always been a very quiet and humble person who I have never seen get on a soapbox to espouse hisviews vociferously,” said a colleague in the special operations community. “He’s a deep thinker.”
Olson grasped the implications of the Sept. 11 attacks almost immediately. As he told colleagues in the Pentagon, “We are the ones who are fighting this war now, but we anticipate that this will be a conflict of some duration. The Americans in high school today are likely the ones who will see this to the finish.”
