I agree. USASFC is a kind of good ol' boys club where people promote their friends up through the ranks. It is very incestuous as far as how you make it up there.
This is a big issue, but I think you are on the right track here. In many ways I feel that SF has abandoned the UW mission that was once their purview in exchange for the DA mission that all the cool kids were doing in the GWOT. Because of this, I think that it is going to be Delta that will get many, if not most, of the high end UW missions in the future rather than SF. These are capabilities that need to be cultivated and developed over the long term, and in this one area where SF separates itself from the rest of the SOF community, I think they have lost this niche in many ways. The future of Counter-Terrorism in my opinion is two Americans who speak the local language rolling out in indigenous clothing, weapons, and vehicles along with local national soldiers. In other words, the future of Counter-Terrorism is going to look less like the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns and a lot more like UW. This should be the type of mission that SF gets but as I mention, I think that this type of work is all going to go to Tier One and SF will only work the FID (as in training) piece of these operations. In a lot of ways, SF is even more big Army than the big Army. It kills me to say that.
As far as recruitment and raising awareness, SF needs to not only reverse what I feel has happened within the community as stated above, but then present the UW mission to potential recruits and the public in general. This is such a huge deal that I don't feel I can over state it. I went to SF with the impression that I would be training foreign soldiers and leading them into combat. I got to do that, but I was surprised when I got to Group that there are other missions that can't be mentioned here that were the true focus of the unit...according to some commanders anyway. I had no interest in that mission and perhaps this is part of the reason why I decided to ETS. It was like having buyers remorse. That said, I did get to Iraq and do exactly the type of work I was looking forward to so I don't mean to be overly critical.
The UW mission is also multi-faceted, subtle, and decentralized. Because of that not to many people understand it except those who have done it successfully or simply have tons of experience in SF. They say you have to be in SF for five years just to get a basic feel for your job. I agree. I did the job for three years, walking right on to a Senior 18B position. I think I had yet to attain a full or comprehensive understanding of my job and what it entailed. The reason I bring this up is because SF needs to do a much, much better job at communicating what their mission is and how UW works. It's a bad ass mission and both SF and DOD as a whole needs to do more to embrace this sort of "non-military" mission. Communicating how this stuff works doesn't just attract recruits but as wild as it sounds, I think those documentaries, articles, movies, whatever, also are the primary medium with which you influence and inform (most) military officers and policy makers. Think about it like this, there is no confusion with anyone about what SEALs do. They swim in the water, under water, blow up ships, raid oil platforms, come ashore and blow some stuff up, ect... By contrast, people only have the most superficial understanding of what UW is.
For those looking for some examples, read Scott Zastrow's "The Deguello" or Keith Nell's "Viscount Down" for some enlightenment on how effective Unconventional Warfare can be.
