With the war on terror winding down, what is the role for SOCOM???

Time for the fanboys to sit down and listen if they can't be constructive. The question is simple.  With the war on terror winding down then what is the role for SOCOM going into the future.

It's a simple but important question.  Thru the work of some OUTLANDISH leaders, a gullible former president and a fawning SecDef (along with his minions) we saw SOCOM gain enormous power and expand to a size totally out of proportion to it's mantra of being small and effective forces.

Additionally they moved from being a supporting to supported force.  Where once they demanded that conventional forces get out the way, now they're almost insisting that conventionals go where they do.

But back on task.

I put up a blog post trying to piece together one of the few missions I can see them doing in the future...a massive raid to seize nuclear weapons.  Most of the readership shot down the idea without a second thought.  They ignored the fact that the much loved SecDef Mattis even floated the idea AND the fact that such a raid was even put into the wild thru a series of news reports before Trump switched to trying a diplomatic solution to N. Korean nukes.

So if they don't seize nuclear weapons....they don't train foreign forces...they DO internal security for host nations BUT need help from conventional forces to achieve that mission then (again) WHAT DO THEY DO!

Recon?  Special Recon?  No need.  UAVs, sats, cyber and spies can get that done.  TRAP missions?  Conventionals can conduct that mission.  Either USMC MEUs (although they're now trying to give that job to the "Maritime Raid Force" instead of helo company) or the USAF pararescue (don't know if they're tasked to SOCOM or not) and the Army (have no idea how they do it).

Hostage rescue?  Most of the time that's gonna be a law enforcement mission.  FBI Hostage Rescue, GSG-9 or some other paramilitary outfit at the national level will do that job.  If it's overseas in someone else's backyard you can bet that while we might have advisors, except in the most extreme circumstances will you see our people head out.

Piracy?  Civilian shipping companies are tired of the losses and have private security manning boats in bad waters.

Do you get the force of connection?

The focus was on the war on terror and for some reason they believed that the war would indeed last for 50 years.  Dumb move.  Dumb thinking.  The bad thing for the SOCOM bubbas is that they bought into that hook line and sinker.

Now they're left searching for a reason to be.

My answer is simple.

We do as we've always done.

When the war is over we downsize.  This time we need to downsize, reorganize and shed headquarters.

Am I wrong?  If I am then tell me what the mission set is for this force going into the future.  Tell me how you use such a vast force with such a limited mission scope.

If the hard is no longer possible then it no longer needs such a large and expensive force.  The talking point that "you can't build them when you need them" might be true, its also true that you can have excess capacity.  If every unit in SOCOM is a raid unit then all we need is the Rangers, maybe a platoon or two of SEALs and we can call it a day.

Don't just yell.  Tell me where I'm wrong!