The Rise of the JSOC

Cue ominous organ music . . .

In case you missed it over the long weekend, the Washington Post promoted a new book by its writers, Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, with an excerpt highlighting the expansion of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the decade since the 9/11 attacks.  The article offers some interesting information on Stanley McChrystal's efforts to revitatalize the command, as well as the success of "Operation Arcadia," the offensive of raids that eventually resulted in the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and along with the Anbar Awakening and the Surge, resulted in pulling the Iraq war back from the abyss into a strategic victory for the United States.  

However, the article buckles under the weight of its own attempts to be sensationalistic, something that plagued Priest and Arkin's earlier reporting.  In the first four paragraphs, Priest and Arkin describe JSOC as a "mysterious organization," a "secretive group of men," and "America's secret army," adding: "When members of [SEAL Team 6] killed Osama bin laden in Pakistan in May, JSOC leaders celebrated not just the success of the mission but also how few people knew their command . . . even existed."  Huh?!?  Does anybody honestly think cigars were lit on May 1st over their anonymity?  If anything, there was probably some trepidation that the raid's success would bring increased scrutiny and oversight of what even the authors admit is "arguably the most effective weapon in the U.S. counterterrorism arsenal." 

Hopefully the book will prove less prone to hyperbole than the excerpt.