McRaven gets quietly bitch slapped.

via BLACKFIVE from CNN Opinion.

Our leaders must counter this misrepresentation and overexposure. Their first step? Act more responsibly. Senior officials are a primary driver behind these profiles, trumpeting operations almost as a matter of routine. Sometimes this is to inform the public, but often it is to claim credit or, even worse, to divulge insider knowledge.
This encourages misleading and unauthorized disclosures from others, including from some operators themselves, leading to more sensationalism. Former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates reportedly expressed great frustration with leaked details on the Abbottabad raid, saltily asking his White House colleagues to "Shut the f... up." We should hold those indiscreet individuals accountable.
We can't legislate common sense, but we can reject leaks and unseemly competition for credit. We call upon the Department of Defense to take the lead and issue a new weighty policy directive that states clear and specific guidelines for the appropriate release of operational information. The directive must codify who can divulge what, when and under which conditions, and call for a universal commitment to accurate reports that also maintain operational security.

The whole article is a good read.

It points out a couple of points that many have said but the Special Ops Community has failed to come to grips with (I have to say except for the Special Forces and Army Rangers...they have handled the transition from AND participation in the wars in Afghanistan/Iraq with noteworthy professionalism).

In essence this opinion piece validates the Old Timer that told McRaven to get the hell out of the press.  The idiot news media laughed at him but he was spot on.

McRaven is a dick.  A glory seeking dick that has taken Special Operations Command in a direction that will be hard to reverse from.

He transformed a Command that had specialist and professionals capable of conducting missions that the Conventional Forces could not do or do well into a 100% full time raid force.  In other words he made the entire Command into a bitched up version of the Rangers.

What is the down stream effect of his tilt?  You have US Marine and Army units doing training missions with foreign militaries.  Not full scale exercise type training but in the form of Special Forces...small units embedding and training those forces.  Further proof that SOCOM has drifted?  The Marine Corps establishes a Crisis Response MAGTF in Europe stepping all over the feet of the Special Operations Crisis Response Force yet not a word is said because they're all raiders now.

Added to the misery for SOCOM is the fact that conventional US Army units are soon to follow the Marine Corps lead and encroach on this MOST IMPORTANT of SOCOM missions.

Training is no longer a primary SOCOM mission.  Crisis response is no longer a primary SOCOM mission.  That leaves raids and deep recon...but since UAVs and SATs can do deep recon better that leaves raids.

A one trick pony is just begging to get downsized.  Expect the biggest enemy of SOCOM to come calling soon...the accountants.  And spare me the talk of them being enlarged and business being too brisk.  The Boston terror case has shown the future.  Terrorism is becoming a law enforcement task instead of a military one.  In the end, within 5 years MARSOC will be gone, Rangers will be smaller (along with Special Forces) and Navy SEALs will be back to 7 teams.

Don't hate me I'm just the messenger.  Blame McRaven.