Are we about to finally get the Advisor Corps?

The commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Admiral Eric Olson, confessed that the U.S. special operations community is failing to fulfill all of its missions:

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are making such heavy use of the nation's Green Berets and other elite warriors that they cannot fulfill their roles in other parts of the world, the military's top commando told The Associated Press.

"We're going to fewer countries, staying for shorter periods of time, with smaller numbers of people than historically we have done," Adm. Eric T. Olson said Monday in his first interview since becoming commander of U.S. Special Operations Command last July.

[…]

To illustrate that point, Olson said that when the 7th Special Forces Group, which is based at Fort Bragg, N.C., and whose normal area of focus is Latin America, rotates into Afghanistan for seven-month tours, it takes two of its three battalions, leaving just one in Latin America.

[…]

Special operations units that are designated mainly for use in Africa and Europe, Olson said, also are under strength for their normal role in those regions because they, too, are tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003, about 80 percent of the overseas deployments of special operations forces have been to the Middle East and Afghanistan, Olson said. That compares with 20-25 percent before Sept. 11, 2001.

None of this is a surprise, and the fact that Admiral Olson is discussing these shortcomings publicly is no doubt tied to an effort to improve Socom’s recruiting effort and funding.

Yet the “Phase Zero” peacetime training and advisory operations that Socom is not now doing are perhaps the best single method of establishing allies around the world, preventing future conflicts, and stopping terror sanctuaries from developing in the first place. Since the demands for direct action and special reconnaissance have diverted special operators away from their traditional Phase Zero foreign internal defense missions, some other specially trained, but not necessarily Q-Course trained, soldiers need to fill these requirements.

Enter LTC Nagl’s Advisory Corps. Is the Pentagon about to finally establish this command?

Perhaps. Small Wars Journal Blog reports that the U.S. Defense Department has formed a committee to examine how the Department should best support the broad irregular warfare mission. Members of the committee include Assistant Secretary of Defense Mike Vickers, Joint Forces Commander General Mattis, and Joint Staff Strategic Plans and Policy Director LTG Sattler.

Admiral Olson has described the unmet need. The Pentagon has established the process to fix the problem. Will a logical outcome now occur?