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By Andrew J. Bacevich, CBS News | May 29, 2012 2:34 PM ET



As he campaigns for re-election, President Obama periodically reminds audiences of his success in terminating the deeply
unpopular Iraq War. With fingers crossed for luck, he vows to do the same with the equally unpopular war in Afghanistan.
If not exactly a peacemaker, our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president can (with some justification) at least claim credit for
being a war-ender.

Yet when it comes to military policy, the Obama administration's success in shutting down wars conducted in plain sight
tells only half the story, and the lesser half at that. More significant has been this president's enthusiasm for instigating or
expanding secret wars, those conducted out of sight and by commandos.

So, too, with Barack Obama and special operations forces. The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) with its
constituent operating forces -- Green Berets, Army Rangers, Navy SEALs, and the like -- predated his presidency by decades.
Yet it is only on Obama's watch that these secret warriors have reached the pinnacle of the U.S. military's prestige
hierarchy.



Since 9/11, USSOCOM's budget has quadrupled. The special operations order of battle has expanded accordingly. At present,
there are an estimated 66,000 uniformed and civilian personnel on the rolls, a doubling in size since 2001 with further growth
projected. Yet this expansion had already begun under Obama's predecessor. His essential contribution has been to broaden
the special ops mandate. As one observer put it, the Obama White House let Special Operations Command "off the leash."

The displacement of conventional forces by special operations forces as the preferred U.S. military instrument - the "force of choice"
according to the head of USSOCOM, Admiral William McRaven -- marks the completion of a decades-long cultural repositioning of the
American soldier. The G.I., once represented by the likes of cartoonist Bill Mauldin's iconic Willie and Joe, is no more, his place taken
by today's elite warrior professional. Mauldin's creations were heroes, but not superheroes. The nameless, lionized SEALs who killed
Osama bin Laden are flesh-and blood Avengers. Willie and Joe were "us." SEALs are anything but "us." They occupy a pedestal well
above mere mortals. Couch potato America stands in awe of their skill and bravery.



As admiring spectators, we may take at face value the testimony of experts who assure us that the SEALs, Rangers, Green Berets, etc.
are the best of the best, and that they stand ready to deploy at a moment's notice so that Americans can sleep soundly in their beds.
If the United States is indeed engaged, as Admiral McRaven has said, in "a generational struggle," we will surely want these guys in our corner.