Why He Does What He Does

 
And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory 
--And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, 
The Pogues 

He was quick-tempered with a
strange halting way of speaking 
--Seinfeld, Lotus episode
__________________

The answer to the titular question is, neither for love nor money, fame nor fortune. He is not gunning for the ubiquitous "consulting" position. He earns no buckaroos for the project. No -- the origins are to be found in a career with the organization in which he discovered that thinking was not allowed, at least, not aloud.

Ranger was the perennial gadfly, or "pain in the ass", depending upon whom was doing the accounting. It was the same in Vietnam. To questions concerning our function in country he would say, "It is THEIR country, after all ..."  This did not win him acolytes.

Ranger retired as a Terrorism Counteraction (TC/A) training specialist for the Department of the Army, designated a subject matter expert (SME) who, at the time, was one of few who had graduated from every school the Department of Defense ran on the topic of terrorism -- including all Special Forces training and Air Force Training in Low Intensity Conflict (TLIC). He maintained his interest in the topic following retirement, and his analyses at RangerAgainstWar are not based in idle speculation.

While in the field, he also disagreed with the official doctrine that terrorism was a great threat to our national security and one that would affect the operation of our Armed Forces, believing instead that terrorism would be a manageable nuisance were correct protocols emplaced. His view was not popular as the dynamic nature and flashiness of the terror threat provided a great moneymaker for the military.

The news media and the security apparatus of the United States were in collusion selling this fear, and the contractors in three-piece suits with leather attaches selling lesson plans two years out of the Military Police corps were a dime a dozen, their legion whisked through revolving doors.  Fear sells, and the Dod was its pied piper.

RangerAgainstWar's recent piece, "The Boston Massacre", was a down-and-dirty evaluation of the tradecraft usually associated with a well-planned and executed event. Terrorist's must use Old Special Forces tradecraft in order to penetrate the U.S. and operate in any successful manner. Their success indicates our failure at practising these methods which used to be a standard part of SF Officers Training course. (Even CIA operatives came through our course which was based on the old OSS tradecraft.)

Direct action and fancy gadgets have largely supplanted that approach, but that's another story.