History of Combating Terrorism - Essay Example

Even though the American and UN troops were able to seize major SNA territories and weaponry, they were still unable to capture Aidid, the commander of the most persistent militia group in the Somalia. Howe and Bir became frustrated with their inability to capture the militia leader, so they decided to call in the help of US special force unit, the Delta Force (Day, 1997). The force that was assembled was designated as Task Force Ranger (TFR) that consisted of air support by way of MH-60 Blackhawks and AH-6J Little Bird Helicopters.

It also had tight connection with the CIA in order to locate Aidid. The demise of the TFR came about on the early afternoon of 3 October 1993, when an intelligence report came in that key members of the SNA will be meeting in a place in Magadishu. The team will be using the same tactics and equipment that they have been using on previous raids, as they only have limited time and information (Day, 1997). Everything went well as planned except for the extraction, as the TFR was shocked on how fast the response from the militia was.

They were succumbed in heavy gun fire and RPGs. On a strict military interpretation, the mission was a success since they were able to accomplish their task. However, the cost was overwhelming which can classify the mission as a failure, in a way. Nineteen American soldiers were killed and missing; and eighty-four were wounded, sixty of which are part of the TFR. Material losses include two helicopters destroyed and four were seriously damaged, several vehicles were also destroyed and damaged as well (Day, 1997).

On the other hand, there are also several successful counterterrorist operations that have been successful and did not have so great losses on the part of the US armed forces. One notable success of the Anti-terrorism campaign of the US government is the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) (Dale, 2008). The success can be associated with the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM). The SOCOM is comprised of highly specialized units including the Army Rangers, the Green Berets, the Navy SEALS, and the Air Force Special Operations Command.

There is also a smaller team known as the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) that specializes in black direct-action operations which includes hunting down terrorists and rescuing hostages (Kibbe, 2004). This highly specialized group is even divided in to three shadowy units such as the Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (Delta Force), the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), and the Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron. The success of the counterterrorism operations also rely on the effectiveness of the highly classified Intelligence Support Activity team (ISA), which is also known as the Gray Fox (Dale, 2008).

The collaboration of these highly specialized units have made the war against terrorism more likely a success than a failure as these teams are well trained and equipped with technological advantages in weaponry and has knowledge of advance tactics and strategies. 2. What preparation (mitigation measures) could have preempted the failure? There are several measures that can be considered in order to avoid the failure of a military operation. Mitigation measures may include Intelligence and threat warning, Security