WASHINGTON -- U.S. military commanders are using the restrictions imposed by the spread of the coronavirus to reshape the deployment of special operations troops all over the world, according to military officials. The decisions mean the withdrawal of elite commandos from some conflict zones and shuttering longstanding missions.
The directives, the officials said, serve two purposes: to reduce the strain on a small but often-deployed portion of the military after more than 18 years of war, and to contend with the risk of operating alongside local forces in countries flooded with the coronavirus.
"The crisis is a good opportunity to review our priorities and the value and opportunity costs of all of our efforts," said Col. Mark Mitchell, a retired Green Beret commander who until November was the Pentagon's top special operations policy official.
The moves align with the philosophy of Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who has long pushed for ending U.S. missions in far-flung parts of the globe to better focus forces toward Russia and China. But it has created some strains within commands that have been reluctant to lose troops.
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In Afghanistan, Gen. Austin Miller, the commander of U.S. forces there, is looking to cut down troops even more from the current goal of 8,600 by withdrawing some of those assigned to train and work with Afghan forces. Nearly a half-dozen Special Forces teams -- each with roughly 12 Army Green Berets -- have been cut since February.
The move was prompted by expectations that cases of the coronavirus would most likely continue to emerge within the Afghan ranks for an indefinite period, presenting a danger to U.S. troops and their relatively small medical infrastructure that was not worth the risk, military officials said.
In Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition has handed over three bases to Iraqi security forces in recent weeks, allowing commanders to pull special operations forces back to a handful of larger bases or assign them outside the country.
The coalition headquarters in Iraq attributed the drawdown to threats from the growing coronavirus pandemic and a winding down of efforts to train Iraqi forces in the fight against pockets of remaining Islamic State fighters throughout much of the country's west and northwest.
"To prevent potential spread of COVID-19, the Iraqi security forces have suspended all training," the coalition said in a statement March 20. "As a result, the coalition will temporarily return some of its training-focused forces to their own countries in the coming days and weeks."
Months before the pandemic, U.S. commanders in Iraq, at the urging of Esper, had drawn up plans to cut U.S. presence in the country to about 2,500 troops from more than 5,000 now.
Those plans took on greater urgency after Iranian-backed militias stepped up deadly rocket attacks against U.S. forces on Iraqi bases, leading to the drone strike in early January at Baghdad International Airport that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian commander. Soleimani's killing prompted many in Iraq's parliament to call for an ouster of U.S. troops from the country and spurred the Shiite militias to again ramp up their rocket attacks.
Against this backdrop of increased security risks, the pandemic and political tensions, U.S. commanders are taking hard looks at what "mission critical" tasks still remain for their forces in Iraq.
The question of prioritizing special operations missions, and not wanting those elite troops idled by a pandemic or political tensions, is one that U.S. commanders worldwide are weighing in secure video conferences with staff on a weekly basis, one senior U.S. general said. The discussions are an inevitable byproduct of a 60-day global no-travel order issued by the Pentagon that has allowed many commanders to look at their array of missions and question which are worth continuing.
In West Africa, the primary mission for special operations forces has been to train and assist West African security forces to try to suppress Islamic groups such as Boko Haram and offshoots of al-Qaida and the Islamic State.
Esper's team has questioned the value of those efforts and wants to scale back missions to counter militants who lack the demonstrated ability and intent to attack the United States on its own soil, the officials said. No terrorist group operating in West Africa is said to meet this heightened assessment standard.
In the past year, the Pentagon has shrunk its forces in Africa by reducing several hundred special operations troops on the continent as part of the troop shift.
A Section on 04/04/2020