Have I grown up or has the culture shifted? Most of these guys come across as being cluster B types just controllable enough to avoid a lifetime in prison. They’re not athletic enough to be pro athletes nor smart enough to be in STEM but just enough of both over the average grunt to pass selection. I’m honestly tired of their self aggrandizing bullshit which is often wholly or largely spun whole cloth. Do older operators criticize this bullshit? Did the modern military cultivate this prima donna bullshit? Shrek is probably the one I find most fucking insufferable. Absolute cringe lord.

>>64033821 (OP)
>be OP
>faggot, but I repeat myself
>e-celeb fanboy over blowhard SOFtrds
>come home empty handed
many such cases

>>64033821 (OP)
OP I'm sorry but you just sound jelly af

>>64033821 (OP)
To be honest, it seems to attract people of poor character who would be in jail without a job that let them shoot people for a living. Even then, the various drug trafficking scandals in SOF indicate that a non-negligible portion can't help themselves.

>>64033841
What is there to be jealous of?

>>64033874
Big beards

>>64033886
Of that I do admit of being slightly jealous of. I’d love to grow a beard but have to wear respiratory protection at work at times

>>64033821 (OP)
I'm tired of doctrine and education being completely dependent on what they do and what they did. It makes absolutely no sense and none of it really holds up in real conflict that isn't basically using the military as a police force in another country.

Would you design all of your equipment and weapons around what a SWAT team does? No you wouldn't, that would be dumb as fuck. As seen in Ukraine, where you don't really see their teachings shine through as the standard in a peer conflict.

Their exploits are responsible for high speed low drag civilian gear advertising. It is a meme and not relevant in civil war or peer war scenarios.

Brand over-exposure: Best example from the 2010s

>>64033821 (OP)
Shrek is the guy that requested Tim Kennedy when he was still a fresh SF baby to be on his CIF team

>>64033821 (OP)
>Have I grown up or has the culture shifted?
You're probably going to end up asking yourself that question in regards to more and more topics and the answer will be "both".

>>64033821 (OP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbnA1xbjdEI&t=5s

pic unrelated

>>64033821 (OP)
>Most of these guys come across as being cluster B types just controllable enough to avoid a lifetime in prison. They’re not athletic enough to be pro athletes nor smart enough to be in STEM but just enough of both over the average grunt to pass selection

They are good at being soldiers, however, GWOT caused the number of SOF to surge which meant the quality of the forces was not always that good when compared to cold war era guys.

TLDR - they're very good at hunting muslims while being fully supported, beyond that there are going to be issues.

>>64033821 (OP)
There's being special operations and there's being special operations leadership. Not many of these guys were actually shot callers

>>64033848
Poor character and just enough intelligence to do what they're told, with a higher than average amount of mental fortitude. The people in prison are literally retarded or have mental illness that makes them angry and unable to have any impulse control. Or have zero fortitude and are drug addicts. I am not impressed by these SF guys either their whole mission is jumping out of a bush beating somebody up and then running away, whenever they meet actual resistance they get cucked.

OP is right on the ball if they had any form of intelligence they'd either be pro athletes or have some high end STEM careers

I honestly respect the Russian SSO and VDV more after seeing all the footage of them raiding trenches, compared to killing Muslim peasants while they're asleep

>>64034045
Anon...there is no more vdv...they're all extinct, too many airdrops...

>>64033942
If your goal is to eliminate or retrieve HVTs, it is. If you're misusing special forces as conventional "super soldiers," then you get retard Russian shit where the units get decimated since they're not line units.

>Hey charlie take my picture! I'm gonna be on the cover of soldier of fortune!

men desperate for cred from other men has always been a thing since the dawn of time nigga

>>64034051
US army just released a 170 page analysis report on exactly how the Russian army operates and it touches a lot on how the VDV are currently used.

>>64034051
>source: r/Ukraine

>>64033821 (OP)
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.

>>64034071
Always tickles me when some gen z tranny tourist eats this prehistoric pasta

Who was the most archetypical SOF guy in the 2010s/2020s?

Pic related being an example.

>>64033821 (OP)
I dunno. I was an infantry Marine (0311) until I qualified for Force Recon selection (0321). I had to go from an 8 year contract to a 10 year contract since 0321 school is nearly 2 years long. RTAP wasn't really that hard if I can be honest. If you like obstacle courses, and camping then you will like it. If you pass that, then you pass selection. Then I went to the Basic Recon course, and then Army Airborne Jump school, and dive school, followed by SERE in Warner Springs.

You have a lot of post recon schools, like mountaineering and stuff, but after SERE you are officially deployable and considered a Reconman.
I did all that just to get deployed with regular infantry, and got to meet a lot of cool MARSOC guys, even though 0321's are NOT MARSOC, I still got to be around a bunch of them and do some cool schools within SOC.
I always found MARSOC guys to be really levelheaded and chill. They made a lot of fun of seals, delta guys, and Army SF. They even brought Jocko and Goggins books to burn while out in the field for tinder lmao

Also, you get full retirement after 8 years if you are in MARSOC, or Force Recon due to the strain it puts on your body. I got out last year since my contract was from 2014-2024, but honestly I feel great. A lot of guys bitch about joint pain, and yeah it hurts but you have to take care of your body. You can't just do all that and sit on the couch when you retire. I still work, and am planning to for at least the next 20 years. I'm 29 now, and see absolutely zero need to make a course, write a book, or bitch all the time. If people ask what my job was, I just say infantry. There is no more honor in taking some extra courses than there is in being bog standard infantry.

>>64034066
Everybody knows the entirety of the vdv was wiped out in the first couple months of the 3 day special military operation

>>64034122
True, I read it on /pol/ and Twitter!!

>>64034088
I think the seal that trooned out

>>64034110
>I always found MARSOC guys to be really levelheaded and chill. They made a lot of fun of seals, delta guys, and Army SF.
What about TACP/JTAC/CCT?

>>64034045
Shrek says most russians died in Afghanistan from diseases from raping and not washing their hands

>>64034045
>>64034061
>>64034066
>>64034126
What blew up this time zigger faggot?

>>64033821 (OP)
Who came across as more psycho on Sean Ryan, Shrek or Drago?

>>64034030
I guess Jocko is the only one SOF commander influencer type that I can think of. Maybe Dalton could have been more of one right now if he didn't die from cancer.

>>64034216
Gavin Newson. When Shawn gifted him a sig I don’t know if that was a veiled assassination attempt

>>64034216
Who was the one who taught Shawn the “warrior knife pass”. Maybe one of the cringiest things I’ve ever seen in my fucking life

>>64034190
Pokrovsk, currently

>>64033821 (OP)
When you hate something or someone you give them power over you. You should really learn to let that shit go.
These people don't know that you exist. They aren't any different than almost anyone these days. In case you haven't noticed, all social media consists of average people pretending to be more important than they really are. The majority of which are shameless self promoters who will exaggerate themselves to ridiculous proportion.
You're no different than a female that's bitching about IG models getting more attention than they are. Let it go.

>>64034488
I think you’re overestimating my feelings on this. I just think their aura of prestige has really waned.

>>64034015
>GWOT caused the number of SOF to surge which meant the quality of the forces was not always that good when compared to cold war era guys.
People don't realise just how much the number of SOF exploded during the GWOT. For example, when McChrystal took over in Afghanistan the number of SOF teams in the country went from 4 to 17. And this was without drawing down commitments in Iraq (also went up), Africa etc. etc. Petraeus and McChrystal loved the fuck out of having death squads they could employ with impunity, and SF functions evolved more towards that than traditional SF.
I haven't heard about the number of special forces being drawn down either, so I assume they're still struggling to find people of high enough quality in the teams a step down from Delta and DEVGRU.

>>64034308
>Pokrovsk is falling
>For the 30th time since January
Get some new material.

For me, its not the narcissism because you'll find that in any low level construction site, prison work, etc.

Its just that their lives seem so mediocre. They lead a WalMart/Golden Corral life after all of the failed book tours. Even Jocko Wilink makes surprisingly little money for the amount of time he has plastered his face on platforms for the past 10 years.

>>64034544
I never thought they had an aura of prestige and I don't think that most people believe they do either.
Look at any industry and there's going to be at least a handful of bullshit influencers who will milk their background for profit. And where there's grifting influencers there's bound to be low IQ followers who believe everything they say and emulate them. It's just that everything these days is amplified to make it seem bigger than it really is.
I'm not gonna be one of those faggots that say "touch grass" but if you step away from the internet and get a better perspective you'll realize that these SOF guys don't really matter that much. It's all hype and it always was. Most niche culture is that way.

>>64033821 (OP)
The reason American special forces are so effective is because they have superior intelligence resource planning their operation, and then better insertion and extraction. The actual operators are nothing special. They are a product of a superior helicopter force. Even operation Neptune spear wasn't remotely impressive on the ground, literally Pakistan could pull off the actual compound raid aspect, the challenge was flying in the team without anyone noticing it.

>>64034590
>NOOOOO YOURE NOT WINNING FAST ENOUGH FOR MY TASTE!!
kek

>>64034716
You're not winning at all, mate.

>>64034190
Andrey Filatov, kek.

>>64034183
so American SOF's secret sauce is better hygiene?

>>64034724
>not winning
NTA but sincerely, how do you see any path forward for Ukraine to win this? Literally all of even the most pro-ukraine analysts are saying it's looking incredibly grim for Ukraine, the only place I see people disagreeing is on /k/, /pol/, and of course redditors

>>64034743
>NTA but sincerely, how do you see any path forward for Ukraine to take back Kherson? Literally all of even the most pro-ukraine analysts are saying it's looking incredibly grim for Ukraine, the only place I see people disagreeing is on /k/, /pol/, and of course redditors
As I said, you need some new material. Russia is losing this war.

>>64034755
>his argument is posting screenshot of 4chan posts
Maybe I gave you too much credit

>>64034743
It only appears grim to normies who don't understand how war works and think current land percentage=win. We've watched the war footage, the satellite images of their depots, and thus watched Russia completely lose almost all its equipment from the past 50 years over the last few years and rely on sheer numbers alone to push through defensive lines. But the thing Ukraine is doing is mostly just waiting them out, like France did with Germany during WW1. Ukraine runs a smaller, relatively cheap army with complete access to the entire planet who trades and is allied with them while Russia has a whopping total of 3 economic allies to trade with while pushing an absurd militarization plan that is only killing the country faster and faster. Ukraine can delay forever, but Russia can't rely on China to carry them forever. The money to keep this shit going is running dry and Putin knows it, hence why he warned the populace that very "hard times" are coming

>>64034772
>He's not able to follow a logical chain of thought
I think you give yourself too much credit.

>>64034772
Oh shit is this Senezh, where are they now lmao? Shame I can't post pics of these dead bush niggers.

>>64033821 (OP)
As other anons have said, these are people that want to kill for a living, and they want to do it legally. The more stable and moral people are (mostly) drawn to other fields and roles. The more unstable people are in jail. What you see is the result of that, and what the culture breeds. And, of course, you have to take into account that you're hearing from the guys that are going on podcasts and writing books.

Even the average grunt won't start doing warcrimes as soon as they deploy, and they usually know better than to talk about it later. "Operator" type guys are giddy at the thought of it. They'll take every opportunity to tell you how they slaughtered a bunch of civilians, but they'll sprinkle in some bullshit to make themselves look cool. Obviously they are oblivious to how psychopathic it sounds.

Worse than that, they are never punished for any of the horrible things they do. Even average Joe grunts only get a slap on the wrist (at most), but these guys are never held accountable for anything they do.

>>64033874
If you've ever been in the military you have no idea how asinine conventional military is and the type of freedom you get once you join a SOF. RRB for example.

>>64034833
Do you think she and the other hot one have crazy sex now? Or is it just 5 minutes of missionary grudgingly once a month like all the rest of us?

>>64034863
>the other hot one
Jesus, how dire are your prospects? Average weight in your zipcode?

>>64034848
*RRC sorry

>>64034743
Ukraine just has to survive. Do you see any path forward that Russia could claim this war as a victory?

>>64033821 (OP)
I think that the questionable performance of the Russian special forces in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is bringing up a lot of uncomfortable questions about how useful they are in a conventional war and if the time and resources spent developing these units is worth the cost.

Like, they may be able to jump over a wall while throwing a knife into some guy's throat with pinpoint accuracy, but apparently bullets will kill them just as easily as anyone else.

>>64033821 (OP)
Pretty sure special forces guys have been arrogant jackasses since the very first examples. Far as I understand it you basically get two types. One doesn't talk about it much, the other will not shut up about being a Ranger/SEAL/PJ/Raider/whatever. Personally I'd be a bit hesitant to have guys that could easily be mistaken for stolen valor with how proudly they crow about being SF. I don't think it'd be too hard for someone with a little manipulation/interrogation skill to get many of them talking and engineer the conversation in such a way that they start spilling secrets. If I were going to recruit guys for special forces I'd look for the psychopaths that are literally there to legally kill, will stay in for life, and are smart enough to keep their traps shut about what they do. Glory hounds might be able to do the job just as well but holy fuck I'd expect them to get out and gleefully write 9001 books about everything they did no manipulation needed.

>>64034743
How do you see Russia actually winning this? Aye they're gaining land, but it's incredibly slow and at an unbelievably high cost. The biggest issue for Ukraine is actually having the weapons to fight which is a problem the EU is pretty committed to helping solve. Russia also has that same problem funny enough but they luckily have a death cult military mentality and the people are still basically soviet cattle. The biggest problem Ukraine faces is the question of how many Russians have to die before Russia breaks through the barrier of sunken cost into "oh fuck, were did all the men go?!" Even if they "win" tomorrow they've already ensured it'd be such a Pyrrhic victory even Pyrrhus himself would cringe. The great inheritance has been squandered, supposedly over !1,000,000! dead Russians, probably an ungodly number of now useless WIA, their international image as being a largely unstoppable military force is utterly destroyed, NATO got 2 new members directly because of the war, and much more.

>>64034175
I never got the chance to work around them much to be 100% honest. Never saw many flyboys at all actually. The Navy takes care of all our transport, medical, etc. Don't think they mentioned them aside from a buddy of mine calling them the most badass guys in SOF. But I don't know if that's true or not. They seem pretty tough, and very well trained from what I have seen online.

I did get to work around Coast Guard MSRT (Maritime Security Response Team) it's like a homeland security version of a Special Forces team. They are the ones who track down, and breach narco subs, which is pretty badass.
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guvr_SgSuSk&ab
The coast guard actually stations on a lot of Homeland Naval bases, and they wear the cutest little blue onsies. We called them puddle pirates.

>>64034776
The problem is that Russia is losing fewer men than last year and is taking more territory per month, with very few heavy armoured assaults. Utilizing mass drone use together with geran spam - for both of which they get unlimited supply of components from China - they figured out a cost-effective way to grind this war for a very long time.

>>64034776
Those fucking normie analysts and their milquetoast opinions. Im so glad I get all of my news and opinions from the experts on reddit and 4chan

If youre wondering why theres a shitskin ITT, a fuel depot or something like that in Sochi got DRONE'D

No.64034955
special forces are only good if you got surprise on your side else its just like any other army unit except they can hide better and know their weapns have silencers on them and other rando mods

idk special forces are a tiny force meant for very specific tasks, mostly data collection or retrebial but its hard work and requires too much training and ultities traing to use most of their kit.

but respect where respect is had.

hell the the british SAS is still the best and they started out with stern guns which are not all that good or long ranged.
so its not the weapon is the training/skill
no idon;t think russian training on special forces is much different from delta the only difference is that many specaz don't; have much navy training in fact in pathetic.

but to say less or not. idk
weaposn do count.
and ukrain is using the best cold war rifle Scar-h
and vector SMG
those things are hard to counter.
and russian guns are mediocre at best. not great but not bad ether.
they lack the punch of western weapons.
this is critcal when your talking about taking on anons with stage 3 armor or better.
thankfully ukraine mostly only has stage 2 armor with very little stage 3 armor

and they don't have flak jackets
so idk training has some part in it but its not a deal breaker.

its more or less concealment and tactics IMO

It all changed when people off the street were given priority compared to people already in.

You put people into this small niche community where rules don't apply, you get the situation we had/have now.

>>64034088
>Looks like some chud working at a used car dealership
>Was actually a Delta Force operator who killed his best friend in front of his family, was addicted to cocaine, had multiple criminal charges, and was eventually killed in what was allegedly a drug deal gone wrong
Wow. Never judge a book by its cover.

>>64033821 (OP)
They aren’t action film video game super soldiers. They are but men, with all the frailties and fallibility that entails.

>>64035031
>The problem is that Russia is losing fewer men than last year and is taking more territory per month
Lol
Lmao

I don't care about SF guys anymore. I don't care what their opinion on firearms or politics are. I'm not impressed by whatever selection or physical training they did. It's all so tiresome.

The perspective of your average grunt or junior infantry officer is far more valuable, humble and grounded in reality. Most grunts that go to war get out and never talk about it again unless someone asks. They don't get to pick their equipment or uniform of the day, they have to suffer through the shittiest conditions in silence with the rest of their platoon company battalion.

The SF guys just cannot let it go, and to make it worse there's an entire subculture of internet chuds who worship them and wear crye AOR2 pants and their desantis leather belts to buffalo wild wings

>>64035212
It's backed up by reliable OSINT data

>>64035023
coasties are actually pretty based

>>64035252
>The perspective of your average grunt or junior infantry officer is far more valuable, humble and grounded in reality
Also probably more relevant to people on here. If you ever actually have to use guns for serious stuff, you're not going to be going in with intel and support elements.

>>64035267
>Confirmed
>You see Ivan, if we just disappear our soldiers, we never have to acknowledge losses
Meanwhile, Ukraine just liberated Kindrativka in the Sumy region and annihilated three Russian battalions while doing so.

>>64035382