U.S. special forces could play big role

WASHINGTON -- They're the "snake eaters," the "night stalkers," clandestine commandos -- they're Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Green Berets, Air Force special operations teams and Marines trained to launch small-scale attacks from aboard Navy ships.

Judging from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's description of the kind of war President Bush envisions, special operations troops offer much of what it may take to root out a network of terrorists in places like Afghanistan or Sudan.

The enemy has no easy-to-see targets, no navy, no air force.

"These are people who operate in the shadows, and we have to deal with them in the shadows," Rumsfeld says.

That's the specialty of troops known collectively as special operations forces, numbering 29,000-strong.

Bush has told everyone in uniform to get ready for a sustained military campaign against terrorism. Still, there were no signs Monday of unusual preparations beyond the normal effort of commanders of first-to-fight combat units to remind troops to get their personal affairs in order, officials said.

Bush visited the Pentagon Monday to meet with Rumsfeld and get filled in on the roles to be played by the 35,500 reservists the Pentagon says it intends to call to active duty in the weeks ahead.

In the thick of it

For security reasons, Rumsfeld has been unwilling to talk publicly about how a U.S. military campaign will be carried out. But he made clear Sunday that special operations troops will be in the thick of it.

You rarely hear much about the military's elite forces, and that's by design. They operate in the dark of night, behind enemy lines, below the radar, on missions that regular troops might think border on madness.

"They are a hammer in the kisser," said Andy Messing, a retired major from the Army special forces.

"They're directed like light coming out of the magnifying glass. The beam of light fries the ant."

That beam of light could be the Army's Rangers, shock troops trained in unconventional warfare. Michael Haas, a retired Air Force colonel who spent much of his career in special operations, said Monday the Rangers and other special operations forces are well suited for this war.

Haas said Rangers, for example, might be called on to infiltrate Afghanistan by helicopter to launch a quick-strike raid against a hide-out of the Taliban religious militia. In the longer term, other Army special forces -- the Green Berets -- might be used to train resistance groups opposing the Taliban, he said.

Or the "hammer in the kisser" might be the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment -- known as the "night stalkers," who fly MH-60 Blackhawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters to ferry ground combat teams behind enemy lines.

Or it might be men from the Air Force's 16th Special Operations Wing, who fly AC-130 Spectre gunships, MH-53 Pave Low helicopters and MC-130 Combat Talon planes designed for long-range, low-level, nighttime penetration of radar defenses to drop paratroopers and equipment behind enemy lines.

Or it might be a combat control team from an Air Force Special Tactics Group, which could be called on to slip into Kabul's airport ahead of an air assault force to prepare a runway for their arrival.

The Army's super-secret Delta Force is specially trained to take on terrorists, and the Navy's SEALs are famed for their skill in underwater demolition and reconnaissance and unconventional warfare.

In October 1993, a joint force of SEALs, Rangers, Delta troopers and "night stalkers" attempted a raid to capture the Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid in the capital, Mogadishu. The operations went wrong from the outset and ended in the deaths of 18 Rangers and Delta troopers.