Sara Jacobs Asks SOF Official How To ‘Yield More Sustainable Results’ In Future Missions

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During a House Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) questioned General Bryan P. Fenton, Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, about prioritizing sustainability in the SOF approach.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Jacobs, you're recognized for five minutes.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:04Thank you, General Fenton, Mr. Jenkins, for being here.

00:07First, I just want to thank you for your great comments on the importance of addressing civilian harm.

00:14I know that there are some conversations in the administration about shutting down the Center of Excellence,

00:19and so I appreciate how forcefully you've advocated for the importance of addressing this issue.

00:25I also just wanted to make sure we get on the record,

00:31I know you said the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation of the Mexican drug cartels does not give you any new authorizations.

00:38Is that accurate?

00:40Yes, ma'am.

00:41Okay, and are there any planning or preparations for military action occurring within Mexico?

00:51Ma'am, I can't speak to active, ongoing discussions,

00:54but it is our sacred obligation to make sure that we are prepared and ready to provide options for the president, should he decide.

01:00Okay, and given that the FTO designation does not give you additional authorities,

01:07is it your understanding that before any potential use of military force in Mexico,

01:11you would need to come back to Congress for explicit congressional authorization?

01:16Ma'am, that would fall to our Commander-in-Chief and the engagement between the executive branch and Congress.

01:22Yes, ma'am, I would think there would be discussion there.

01:25Okay, excellent.

01:27General Fenton, I wanted to ask you about Africa.

01:30The record of soft operations in Africa has been mixed, right?

01:33We've had some tactical successes,

01:36some, you know, evident strategic outcomes,

01:39such as stability, governance, and lasting reduction in extremist activity remain elusive.

01:44And we've seen in Somalia and the Sahel.

01:50So given these outcomes, how is SOCOM adjusting its approach to ensure that future engagements

01:54yield more sustainable results and avoid unintended consequences,

01:58such as inadvertently contributing to regional instability?

02:02Representative, I'll start by saying that when I look at partnerships, wherever they may be,

02:09and certainly through the lens of SOCOM as a premier partner organization

02:12and the way that our components and our theater special operations command do it,

02:16I'd probably take a bit of a long-term view,

02:19maybe all the way back to the 1950s when Special Forces and then our MARSOC, AFSOC, NSW teams all started.

02:27So I think the record is mostly on the upside in terms of partnership across the globe.

02:32I'd probably say the same thing in Africa.

02:34And I think that's attributable to when there are challenges.

02:39I think we're an incredibly fast-learning organization.

02:41What we do to address them in terms of maybe it's how we vet differently,

02:46if we're talking about certain type of forces.

02:48It could be about authorities we need modernized so that we can move faster

02:52and then meet the partner nation's demand.

02:55I think all of those really go towards at some point we have a common interest.

02:59We want to go from some level of burden-sharing to burden-owning by that nation

03:05and at some point them leading in that burden.

03:08And I think to do that, we're always going to learn lessons,

03:10but I can commit to you that we're always bringing them back in a virtuous cycle to our force

03:14and then inserting them in an institutionalized way and then doing it all over again.

03:18That's really helpful.

03:20What do you think the lessons are then from some of the sort of strategic failures we've had in the Sahel?

03:26Well, so I don't know that SOF has had strategic failures, just to be on the record myself.

03:33I think there are certainly strategic lessons to be learned.

03:36I think the first one, if I could give, is we need to do more information operations.

03:41And this is not only in SOCOM.

03:43It's probably the Department of Defense.

03:44It's probably across the interagency.

03:47That information operation void in many ways, I think, allowed adversaries to get in there

03:51and mistruths, untruths, falsities, put a different narrative based on their view of the world,

03:59what they wanted, and mostly the great work we've done for years.

04:03So I think information operations is number one.

04:06Silence is consent.

04:07If we're not informing and we're not leveraging that as a traditional activity,

04:11I think we're seeding space.

04:13Probably the second one is an opportunity to really understand the other partners there beside just that nation,

04:20so partners from across the globe, and what are their agendas.

04:24I think we get better at each time.

04:25Those would be the two that I'd put against the backdrop of Africa.

04:30Mr. Jenkins, anything you wanted to add about SOF operations in Africa?

04:36We want to make sure that there are three primary lines of effort that we're focusing on,

04:40defend the homeland, deter China, and make sure that we shift burdens to our allies and partners.

04:45So anything that affects those three lines of effort, if we see threats emanating from West Africa,

04:51otherwise we would need to take every opportunity we can to mitigate that.

04:55Thank you, though.

04:57Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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