JAB, refer back to when surgicalcric said "CF, when tasked, deploys to train HN personnel, period. SF, when tasked, deploys to do X through FID. There are more differences than similarities in the two but we cannot delve into them without violating aspects of mission security."
If you don't know what he is referring to, you don't need to know. However, saying CF can perform the "SF mission" is laughable. This mindset is due to ignorance (and some professional jealousy) on behalf of senior CF personnel.
Yes, CF can train foreign troops. Teaching BRM and small unit tactics to indig troops can be challenging, but most competent soldiers can do it. There are other things at work, and getting into the mindset that big Army can do what SF can do is the wrong way to think. Unfortunately, very few people in the CF food chain need to be privy to why that is, so this mindset continues to permeate.
I get that there is overt and covert aspects to Foreign Internal Defense (FID), but I think some of you are trying to talk it up a bit much. FID is a part of a National Assistance Program (NA) as well as Humanitarian and Civic Assistance (HCA), and Security Assistance (SA). All three are applied as part of a NA program and are normally under “peace time” circumstances (but can also be conducted by combat forces during ongoing combat operations, such as in Iraq & Afghanistan). NA programs can either be overt with large scale CIV & MIL aid, large media coverage in the aspect of “hey world we are helping this country”. Or NA programs can be more covert (not going to get into details, but most of you know what I am talking about), which would fall into the SOF side of the house. NA programs are not simply a MIL mission, they are not simply SOF or CF, they are a combination of all, or sometimes just one or two, etc.
FID = major military to military advisory effort under National Assistance.
Defined by the US Joint Military as: FID is “participation by civilian and military agencies of a government in any of the action programs taken by another government or other designated organization to free and protect its society from subversion, lawlessness, and insurgency.”
SA=include all the same aspects of FID, but also include Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Foreign Military Financing Program (FMFP), and the International Military Education and Training (IMET).The key difference between SA and FID, is that SA cannot involve actual combat.
HCA=is more of the large scale operation that include cross training, civic stability operation and deal primarily with host nations with a pre-developed military, security forces, civil authorities. But this type of assistances is normally to build national friendships or to assist during a time of national crises (i.e. such as seen in Haiti and most recently in Japan).
All three are aspects of National Assistance (NA) and all three can and are conducted by SOF and CF. SOF obviously has FID as one of their core tasks, there for they are better trained in such and have better success in such. However, CF has been involved in FID operation (along with all types of NA programs) for well over 150+ years. Stating that FID is only a SF mission or that CF cannot conduct FID is simply ignorant. There are several SOF units (PSY/CA, all types of MI, and logistical units) that have FID in their core tasks, not just SF. There are plenty of historical examples of CF conducting FID operations (and successfully).
Again, I believe SOF (primarily SF) is better for the FID mission. However, stating that CF will not be involved, that they have not been involved, or that they should not be involved in the future, is simply retarded IMHO. We obviously know that CF has conducted FID, that they are currently conducting FID and that FID will be a mission that SOF and CF will share in the future…
