Obama’s ‘Boots on the Ground’: U.S. Special Forces Are Sent to Tackle Global Threats

Even as Mr. Obama has repeatedly said that he opposes American “boots on the ground” in far-flung parts of the world, his administration continues to carve out exceptions for Special Operations forces — with American officials often resorting to linguistic contortions to mask the forces’ combat role.

.. That effort was thwarted in part by regional military commanders who bristled at losing their autonomy in the areas they oversaw. Now, as the influence of the Islamic State spreads, some military experts think Socom is well suited to the mission.
“Regional solutions will be limited solutions, thus the need for a global approach, led by Socom as the motivating force behind a global network to defeat the Islamic State,” said James G. Stavridis, a former four-star admiral who is now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts.

But others are less certain, seeing peril in trying to fight the Islamic State with a military-centric model similar to the one adopted to combat Al Qaeda.

“This is an inordinately more complex situation than with Al Qaeda after 9/11,” said Jeffrey W. Eggers, a former Navy SEAL who worked on national security affairs at the Obama White House and is now a fellow at the New America Foundation. “We need a little humility about Socom’s ability to get its arms all the way around this problem.”