Who is more Formidable: Navy Seal or CIA Operative?

Factual Questions
101

I’m glad you guys appreciated the information. Admittedly, the general framework for all this stuff can be found on a
Wikipedia, but you have to look at other sources for real juicy details

@KarlGauss - That’s a good question. It heavily depends. There certainly are a few Tier-1 units (I’m going to call them Special Missions Units from now on because that the official NATO designation I think) in Asia, but not as much as the West. This is primarily due to Asian countries’ very limited involvement in the conflicts Western powers have been involved in for the past few decades.
The one most clear-cut Special Missions Unit in Asia would be South Korea’s/the Republic of Korea’s 707th Special Mission Battalion, popularly known as “White Tiger”. It’s a subunit in the ROK Army’s Special Warfare Command, which consists of special forces units that are roughly equivalent to US Army Special Forces (Green Berets). The 707th SMB has all the makings of Special Missions Units. It has Tier-1 funding and equipment, and although anyone in the ROK Army can apply, it recruits mainly from other units in the SWC, kinda like how the British SAS recruits mainly from the Paras or how Delta Force recruits mainly from Rangers. The 707th SMB has trained extensively with foreign counterparts and no doubt has plenty of operational experience behind enemy lines in the North.
Other SMUs might be India’s Paras, MARCOS and the Garud Commando Force. They each have three-year long training pipelines and see plenty of action in troubled regions. Pakistan’s Special Service Group, Special Service Wing and Naval Special Service Group are mirror copies of India’s SOF and have been very strongly beating back terrorist forces in the country. Israel’s two main SOF, Shayatet 13 and Sayeret Matkal, have consistently been considered among the best special forces in the world. With that conflict between Israel and Palestine going on, they’ve seen plenty of deployments. It’s good that you bring up Turkey, because they have some very excellent SOF as well. In particular, the Turkish Army’s OKK has a three-year training pipeline and has been heavily deployed in the Middle East, and are considered among the best as well. The Philippines has one Special Missions Unit - the Light Reaction Regiment, which recruits from Scout Rangers and the 1st Special Forces Regiment, and has been (very successfully) fighting ISIS in several parts of the country. Japan’s special forces are iffy. They only have two: the Special Forces Group and the Special Boarding Unit. The former is based on Delta Force, and the latter is based on (and was trained by) the British Special Boat Service. Being influenced by actual SMUs doesn’t necessarily mean they are SMUs though, as they haven’t seen heavy fighting like Western SOF. The SBU has fought piracy near Somalia, and that’s all I know. Indonesia has three SMUs: SAT-81 (recruits from Army SF - Kopassus), Denjaka (recruits fork naval and marine special forces), and Detachment-90 (recruits from Air Force SOF). Indonesian SOF has had to fight terrorism and fight alongside local police against gangs, so they’ve plenty of operational experience. I can’t speak for the rest of Asia’s special forces. I know the Iraqi Army’s Golden Division has been very successful in the fight against various terrorist organizations compared to conventional counterparts, but they seem to be on the level of elite infantry units.

I see a lot of you guys discussing special forces physiques, and most of you have hit the nail on the head in that most SF soldiers don’t look like Rambo but more like regular joes. There is a ton of emphasis placed on endurance in the physical training of SF around the world, which is why many of them march tens of miles with 100+ pound rucksacks during selection. That said, it’s been said that American SOF focuses more on explosiveness than foreign counterparts. Even so, that doesn’t mean there are tons of musclebound dudes in those units. In fact, Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down, wrote that Delta operators spanned the whole spectrum. Some guys looked like ultramarathon runners, some looked like track and field champions, and some looked like huge bodybuilders and powerlifters. He emphasised that all of them were much faster, stronger, and had tons more stamina than even the Rangers they worked alongside. Case in point: the Battle of Mogadishu lasted an entire day and was full of heavy fighting, and ended with the infamous Mogadishu Mile. Pictures of Delta operators in the aftermath showed them looking not one bit tired. SAS is the same, though there are supposedly very few guys with huge biceps.

102

The Spike TV show Deadliest Warrior never matched them up against each other, but their individual episodes may prove enlightening.

103

I know this is a fossil thread, but what the heck.

Reality is that the two most formidable people on Earth, is the dude carrying the radio that calls in the fast movers on a shake and bake , or division arty for steel rain. That and his distant cousin that turns keys and launches the missiles.

Having said that, it would depend on the length of the conflict. Vietnam was long enough for everyone to have a piece of the Pie, So its not too hard to think that the garcias would set up some sort of band of brothers that made sure that no one survived the war that did not deserve too. They were the principals that prosecuted the phoenix program, ran mercenary armies of nung, and switched out foreign govts when required.

The phrase you want to keep in mind is sheep dipped. The Govt essentially fired ST6 and traded em for a pack of smokes to the CIA, who sheep dipped em and then they went to pakistan and canceled Bin Laden’s check. If the present CIA has a band of brothers, they are not a large enough outfit for them to act independently and had to sub contract to the military for the shooters.