Savage in Tendency

Just finished US Special Forces and CIA covert operative Billy Waugh’s biography called “Hunting the Jackal”.  The book was published in 2004 and much has transpired in the past 18 years.  For instance in the book Waugh tells us he believes Usama Bin Laden (UBL) was turned into  DNA in the caves of  Tora Bora.  We now know that the cockroach didn’t die that early but was later exterminated by special forces with a bullet to the head in Pakistan in May 2011.  The other thing is that we have withdrawn from Afghanistan, that I’m sure, breaks Billy Waugh’s heart.  Of course the Russians are on the offensive in Ukraine, getting their butts kicked.  We’ve just come through COVID.  Sadly, as I write this on New Year’s Eve, 2022, I just finished my first run-in with COVID.  Yeah…a lot of travel the past month, and for me, thinking my protocol has been sound, I succumbed.  I’ve been boosted 3 times.  Will we ever know what really works?  

Waugh quotes Orwell at the start of the book,   “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf”.  (Not actually Orwell but it’s not  clear who said it…but it’s correct regardless)  This cannot be any more true than in the life of this rogue warrior named Billy Waugh. Not to steal credit from the title of Dick Marcinko’s book about Navy Seals but by that name all our special forces are warrior’s and by definition rogue.  I’m using the definition of rogue to mean savage or destructive in tendency.  Which is exactly the mission we have in mind for these forces. Another definition of rogue is “unprincipled”. This however is the antithesis of Waugh’s work.  When it comes to executing violence on those who would do us (The Country) harm, Waugh is the furthest it would seem from unprincipled. 

The other thing that has recently occurred is that Argentina just won the World Cup.  A December World Cup, one to be remembered.   I only mention that because in one of the book reviews I just read about this Billy Waugh the reader refers to him as the Greatest of All Time or GOAT as it pertains to special forces fighting men.  

To be the GOAT you have to be literally the Greatest of All Time.  The greatest soccer player of all time, just led Argentina to victory.  Lionel Messi.  Not Diego Maradona, the other Argentine  who once could lay claim to being the GOAT.  Pele in Brazil (RIP Pele), or Ronaldo from Portugal. But the facts as they stand, Messi is not the current GOAT as he just lived out his destiny  to become the GOAT.  To which all others will be judged.  Can we determine if Billy Waugh is the GOAT of special forces?  It’s not an easy task.  

Can there be a GOAT in this category of warfighting men (or women)?  There are so many heroes out there.  Is there even a category?   Audey Murphy springs to mind as the most decorated American Soldier of all time.  Surely he was the GOAT of something.  Other warfighters who they write books about should be examined in this category.  The Russian sniper Vasily Zaytsev played by Jude Law in the movie “Enemy at the Gate” has over 242 confirmed kills.  The American sniper, Chris Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper in the movie “American Sniper” had 80 confirmed kills.  Just getting Bradley Cooper to play you, might make you the GOAT, although Jude Law put in a strong performance.

Another testosterone laden category of warfighting men is that of fighter pilots.  German Ace’s tend to dominate the skies with Manfred von Richthofen aka “The Red Baron” tallying 80 aerial kills in WWI.  However another German Ace, Erich Hartmann, shot down 300 of his adversaries aircraft in WWII, making him the GOAT of the skies. Nobody even comes close to Hartmann.   In the US we tend to hero worship ACEs such as Richard Bong with 40 kills in Korea and of Course Robin Olds, an American ace in three different wars, which is interesting to be sure.  Olds is memorialized every year in the USAF during March where airmen try to outdo one another by growing the most outlandish Robin Olds Mustache.

Without proper criteria it’s hard to argue Billy Waugh is the GOAT.  He would need that World Cup trophy.  He would have needed UBLs head on a pike as his supervisor at the CIA, Coffer Black,  described to him the mission at hand just before he went to Afghanistan.  The fact that Billy Waugh was on the ground in Afghanistan, with the CIA, at age 71 certainly puts him in a unique, if not GOAT like category.  Had he actually returned to Cofer Black with UBL’s head, on a pike, or in a box, I certainly would have said yes, to GOAT..  That would have fulfilled his destiny and come full-circle from those moments on the ground in Khartoum, Sudan in Africa   where Waugh had multiple opportunities in the early 90’s to personally end UBL’s life.  That was reported as real in Ric Prado’s book, Black Ops.  That would have made a fine movie had we come full circle.  We did not.  But what else distinguishes his career from other mere mortals where we can find the ground to elevate Waugh into GOAT territory.  We need heroes of this caliber.   

Waugh’s first principle,  rough men who stand ready so we can sleep at night.

This is both a true statement and a necessary condition of peace.  Those who don’t have the stomach to consider the necessity of violence, or the threat of violence do not live in the real world and do not understand a thing beyond their own personal comfort. I don’t say that lightly.  Homosapiens suck as a species.  Left to our own devices we will never stop finding reasons to kill one another.  Only sane and well considered members of our society will find ways  to reason and make laws by which we can peacefully coexist.  But then we must also have the manner in which humans are governed to include law enforcement internal to one's state and a military, to defend against aggression from abroad (and within as we’ve recently discovered). 

So let’s consider what Billy Waugh tells us about his life in this biography. This is a brief synopsis, read his book to hear it in his words and his war stories which are fascinating and I wish I was in a bar with him, hearing of the exploits first hand.  

Waugh started in the Army in 1948 and went to Airborne School before going to Korea.  After Korea Shortly after the end of the Korean War, he trained with Special Forces and was assigned duties in Germany. He deployed to Southeast Asia and began doing counter insurgency against the North Vietnamese in places not on the map, like Laos.  He was injured multiple times, the most significant being awarded this 6th Purple Heart for action under fire during the battle of Bong Son. Serving until 1972 in Vietnam he was a Command Sergeant Major before retiring from the Army.  He began contract work for the CIA through Edwin Wilson (Ed Wilson’s War) in Libya, perhaps providing camera footage arguably later instrumental in Operation Eldorado Canyon. In the 80’s he worked as a security cop out at Kwajalein Missile Range in the Pacific to disrupt Russian agents/military attempting to collect intel on our long range missile testing.

In the 90’s he again worked for the CIA in  Khartoum, Sudan where he found and kept under surveillance “the Jackal”  for which his book is named. And he also kept a close watch on Osama bin Laden.  Sadly not putting that dog down and saving the world from that scourge and several decades of GWOT.  Then of course his historic Post 9/11 entry into Afghanistan as an advisor at the age of 71. (Gary Schroen - “First In” although Schoen does not mention Waugh by name his presence there is indisputable).

So, summing up.  Huge American. Highly decorated.  Savage in tendency.  All the right principles. A legend. A motivator.  A leader. I’m glad we have American’s like Billy Waugh giving their all for our Country.  But Billy Waugh as the Special Forces and Covert Operative GOAT?  Probably not.  But exactly one of the roughmen (or women) we need on the frontline protecting us as we sleep.  Four-stars for Billy Waugh putting all his war stories in one place for us to relish.