Kandahar would be NDS 03, run by Omega-50 out of Mullah Omar’s old home; it’s possible this guy was part of one of the SF-led partner forces out there instead but given that it’s CIA confirming his status I doubt it.

if only there was a story about a blonde amoral starfucker journalist from new york city who is proactive in facilitating the rise of fascism getting her just desserts that could provide us with some form of catharsis

It’s like people read that one quote about the Chindits and never think about why SOF “[attract] the best men”, and if perhaps there might not be real good reason for it

Reform and rightsizing are extremely necessary but man alive do people miss the point

The strike force-ification of SOF over the last GWOT or so is bad not only because it created cultural rot and led policymakers to make SOF exalted panaceas, but it also obscured why these units exist and are necessary since all most people know is raids, Eddie Gallagher, and “Cult of the Operator”

Boiled in WHAT

If you're a sicko like me you might be thinking "why not have SOT-As or <MIB> do that" – both of those are focused on tactical-level voice communications which is why they're called cryptolinguists. Theoretically you could retrain them, but why bother when USAF has the skills and people?

Obviously you can't get the same capability as Guardrail or Rivet Joint, but you can cover a relatively large area and get minute-of-AARGM TLE on the radars without risking expensive air assets in high demand and short supply, and while moving to their OPs they can do traditional recon too

The basic CONOPs is "lol what if we could just park a Guardrail on a hilltop somewhere" – that way you don't have to worry about loiter time or SAM threats, you just sit an OP in the general area where the TELs and radars are and let them get precise fixes on firing areas for the SEAD packages.

Hydrographic reconnaissance (making charts of the terrain around beaches as prep for landings) is a traditional SEAL task that nobody else does. MARSOC doesn't have a unique task because MARSOC was explicitly stood up to provide more bodies for GWOT so they're meant to do capability duplication

TEL hunting and SEAD prep was a significant ODA mission because at the time the only way to hunt was via getting physical eyes-on; nowadays there are some fancy ESM boxes better suited for the role that require specialized operators who know how to work them and most of those cats are USAF

RRC and the <> recon platoons are much more like traditional LRRPs; sneak around enemy rear areas and direct fires as appropriate, then run like hell when you eventually get detected. They also picked up a plainclothes urban reconnaissance role over GWOT but that's way more limited than it sounds

SFODGs are doing things that almost start to edge into CIA's traditional bailiwick and compete with 35Ms for missions; lots of HUMINT and OPB work to lay the ground ahead for ODAs to conduct UW missions as the campaign progresses

AFSOC is either doing "Global Access", i.e. sending small elements to identify and establish austere short-term airstrips essential to the ACE concept, or they're sending guys ahead for local weather forecasting (way more important of a mission than you'd think) or to hunt TELs for follow-on SEAD

Short answer yes, because SR is a very broad tasking that encompasses a lot of different things and USAF SR is doing very different things from SF ODGs are doing very different things from 75th's RRC and the battalion recon platoons. Nothing distinguishes MARSOC (but MARSOC was always a bad idea)

There is a very simple solution to Hemedti, Kagame, the Tatmadaw, Netanyahu, and their ilk

Best pizza in da world, no contest

Even if they didn't go that direction they could've had an easy layup by doing a very early GWOT game (like '01-'02) starring a young David Mason running into Adler and Marshall, maybe chasing down Mullah Rahman from the '80s portion of Blops2; you get to have your Blops2 tie-in *and* Blops6 sequel

I guess if you're completely unwilling to let the 2025 tie-in for a Blops game go then having Treyarch go back to back might make some weird kind of sense but then why not have your efforts there and throw out another Vanguard or IW or whatever as a throwaway in '24 to preserve your best Blops ideas