There are only two things responsible for the Ambush in Niger...Complacency & Enemy activity...

I've been watching the debate about the cause of the ambush in Niger but it's really simple.

The first is complacency.

I've said and many others have too.  Complacency kills and SOCOM got complacent.  They're already operating far out on the limb, they're out of necessity needing support but at the same time they want to keep things in house.  Add to it undeniable success over a long period of time (on the battlefield, not changing the strategic picture) and they pushed out further and further till it bit them.

The second is enemy action.

As much as we might not like it, the terrorists are evolving.  They're adapting to our tactics and they're becoming more precise in their attacks.

Small units on a big continent?

They're going to observe, seek to isolate and destroy those units.  From their perspective before support can arrive.

We're fans of base camps now.  It wouldn't surprise me if every patrol was monitored as soon as they exited the gate.

I didn't need to know how Johnson died.  I had hoped that he hadn't been captured alive (I still hope that's the case and we're not being lied to for the sake of the nation's psyche as well as the family) and that seems to be the deal.

But the reality is that he knew the job was dangerous as did the other  people that unfortunately lost their lives.

It's just too bad that the news media stuck a microphone in the face of a grieving widow and an ambulance chasing Congresswoman.

Note.  I'll touch on that in the future but their needs to be rules and regulations that family members of the fallen aren't "mobbed" by news reporters while in the midst of what must be horrible anguish, anger and outright despair.

Long short.

There is no one to blame for this incident.  This was one of those times when Murphy whipped out his big green dick and decided to fuck everyone.

The only thing we can do is learn. The first lesson I've already described.  Complacency kills.  I did it for the second lesson too.  Enemy action is a real thing and taking hits is just part of the game.

It's ugly to say out loud but its true.  If we're gonna be deployed around the world then the American public better wrap its mind around that terrible truth.