The success of special operations forces is driven by good intelligence

Blame the intelligence, not the soldiers,

for failure to save James Foley

byPhillip Lohaus

This week we learned that American special operations forces attempted earlier this summer to save the executed journalist James Foley. 

The stakes of the raid were high: an American life was at risk, and any harm done to Foley would likely necessitate an American response to a crisis in Syria that it had long attempted to ignore. 

Yet the raid ultimately failed. Blaming US troops for this failure is not the correct response. 

Our special operations forces are some of the most formidable soldiers on the planet, but they cannot be expected to succeed without the right information at the right time.

Read more: www.aei-ideas.org

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