US commandos kill senior IS commander in Syria raid

I'm on the fence about this, really. I'll have to ruminate on it a while... maybe marinate it a bit.

The big story here, to me, is the psyop involved. It sends statements - statements to ISIS that "Yeah, we can own your sorry asses whenever we want, WHEREVER we want. Keep on flappin' them gums - see what comes next".

It sends a message to all the folks screaming for action to "DO something!" - it says "See? We did something. Now calm the frakk down".

I'm not as worried about the OPSEC aspects. OPSEC necessarily has to be tighter before an op than it does after an op. It's less likely that they'll be effectively waiting for you after you're already out. It may put them on a higher alert for more incoming, but they were already at red, just waiting for the day, and beatin' their gums together about what all they were going to do to us "crusaders" if we ever dared to invade their territory, how they were gonna pwn us at Dabiq.

That was a lot of crowing, a lot of tall talk. THIS was action, not talk, and it sent a third message to the entire world - "they're so full of shit I bet their eyes are brown!" that sort of thing is a lot less effective psychologically if no one knows about it.

I don't really have a problem with Delta raids, as I've been screaming for specops involvement - just keep the damned leg generals out of it, and it'll go a lot smoother. I do wish they'd operate in a more effective manner, leading locals rather than doing it all themselves, but that's not really Delta's remit. That's what USASF are for. Delta has a whole 'nuther game plan.

All in all, the psychological impact on ALL of the pysch targets is practically nil if no one knows about it, so they had to talk. It's probably not going to make ISIS any more prone to sit and wait, because they claim to already have been sitting and waiting - they just aren't terribly effective at guarding where they don't know it's coming, which is the real reason behind OPSEC anyhow.

The Delta guys aren't talking, and most likely won't - this isn't a particularly high value target to them, it's just another day at the office. The ones doing the talking are the politicians, who HAVE to say something, or their carefully crafted psyop just goes down the tubes. As long as they aren't naming names or specific units or teams, I'm probably OK with it. Nothing wrong with saying "a bunch of fighting guys fought" - that IS, after all, what fighting guys do. It's not a big secret that Delta kills folks and blows stuff up. Just as long as they aren't naming names or units specific enough to invite a retaliation at home, we're probably good.

I'll have to sit and stew on it a bit longer to make sure.