I never go for these type lists and I hope the guys at Atchuup! weren't doing a top "35" but simply listing these units.
One thing I'll never understand though is why the Special Boat Service and US Army Special Forces don't get more recognition. They consistently rank low on these type lists but from my limited time with them, they are some of the hardest, most professional guys around, that tend to get the toughest missions and then don't blab about it in the local watering hole.
Check out the list here.
The one thing that ultimatly decides how effective or Well Known a special forces is globally is how a particular country uses them and at what intervals and over what varied geographies they are used.
ReplyDeleteVersatility be thy name. The more you use them the more special skills you end up stashing in your "Special Forces Inventory". Enable those skills with specialized or modified equipement, tell your politicians to Man-Up regarding cloak and dagger tasks and there you go.
I still believe that for any Powerfull Person to hold on to his power, the most valuable "Special Force" out there is a buch of corrupt interior ministry thugs in black vans and silenced pistols.
In what world does the Peruvian and Indonesian Forces show up and not the Royal Marine Commando ? Or have they gone extinct with the SDSR ?
well known does not equal effective.
Deletejust because the SEALs are known all over the world doesn't mean that they're the best guys to send into situation x, y or z.
similarly just because SBS doesn't broadcast every successful mission doesn't mean that they can't get the job done when it nut busting time.
where did the corrupt minister come from? thuggery, theft and general bad behavior doesn't mark you as anything special, just another criminal in a suit.
ohh, i didnt want to equate well known to effective. I meant both terms as seperate.
DeleteI also didnt mean Minister. I mean Ministry. Every country has an Interior Ministry or Minstry of the Interior/Homeland Affairs/Home affairs. In a vast majority of the countries, this Ministry of Department is supposed to look after general policing and making lives safer for the people. In reality it turns out to be a cabal of political plotters forming their own elite units or Praetorian Cohorts to get rid of domestic opposition and sometimes to also get rid of enemies in other countries.
These Interior Ministry Thugs also have the same effect as a full on Special Force..........that is- Maximum Change for Minimum Effort. Precision targeting of people, gathering intelligence, Massive survielance and data mining, assasinations, professional hit squads, bombings, creating the initial violence to break up a peacefull demonstration to make it look like protestors turned evil, Bribery of officials etc.
But yes Solomon, I agree with your point that Ranking these forces is useless unless they have actually met each other and fired shots in anger at each other. Then we can can compare the US Rangers to Waffen SS (Now defunct though) only for specific periods and engagements.
Any other comparison and it just becomes a semi-propoganda half an hour show on the History/Military Channel.
Deleteinterior ministry's.
Deleteyeah. they have forces that can reach special ops level of efficiency and can be used for all types of barbarity.
ok. now i see where you're coming from.
When I saw the Serbian Gendarmerie and a couple of other units in the list which were not Military units but actually Para-Military or Police SWAT equivalents, that reminded me of the Dark Side of Bad Governance.
DeleteI also read someplace that Iraqi SPecial Forces, After USA left were used by Maliki as his own Praetorian Body Gaurd. Couldnt verify it though.
Yup. You're right. Author said in top narrative that he wasn't ranking them, but rather just compiling a list.
ReplyDeletethe blurb that they aren't ranked in any particular order wasn't there when i posted this article.
Delete@Sarabvir Singh
ReplyDeleteThe Peruvians defeat two of the craziest terrorist groups (Shining path and Tupac Amaru) they rescued 200 people from the Japanese Embassy in Lima with just one lost and two soldiers dead, they won the war with Equador in 1992 after massacred the Ecuadorian soldiers in the forest when the they invaded Peru in 1992 using stringers to shoot down 11 airplanes and helicopters making impossible to do an incursion by air, and they continue fighting the better equipped cartels and drog dealers in the forest.
Believe me, you don't wanna mess with my buddies.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U67Wlxjsk4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The Peruvians did all that ?.....damn, that's my next research topic then.
DeleteAnd I forgot to mention, in Haiti they disarmed the gangs in port Prince. In the mean time the Brazilians Argentinians and Chileans watched the operarion from their helicopters.
ReplyDeleteSome of them still working in Iraq for privet security companies and I won't be surprised to see them fighting the Isis.
Where did you saw that?
DeleteI know it because I lived in Peru at that time. I'm Peruvian-Canadian. I can post the links in the evening if you want. I'm the office right now.
DeleteI'd bet the SBS and USA SF like it that way. Quiet Professionals, and all that.
ReplyDeleteSpot on Sol.........I'm guessing that the SBS and US SF would be dissapointed to come high in any pointless ranking system. They come in peace and leave the enemy in pieces. After all, empty vessels always make the most noise!
ReplyDeletePerhaps one of the next security requirements is "STFU: No Book deals and no television interviews. we do not speak to the media/bloggers/hollywood"
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that is being blurred is Commando foreign ops vs Domestic Anti-terrorist AND Doorkicking Direct-Action vs. Indirect work with foreign personnel/training.
These kind of lists use questionable parameters to come up with rankings and the "bad ass" criteria is the most subjective of these. Where are the Indian SF units? They are engaged in ongoing counter terror operations for the past 20-30 years .Many of the SFs on this list have almost zero actual combat experience or very limited.
ReplyDelete