Established during the Obama administration, SOCNORTH was originally tasked with “generating SOF options supporting counterterrorism and counternarcotics.” SOCNORTH was given a vast area of responsibility, from the western end of the Aleutian Islands to Canada, across the Homeland, Mexico, and portions of the northern Caribbean region to include The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, U.S. and U.K. Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, and the Atlantic and Pacific approaches to the continental United States. The documents are now clear that SOCNORTH is directed to fight the cartels in the same way that the U.S. military has fought terrorists in the Middle East for the last two decades: characterize the nature of the enemy, identify the leaders and establish the links and relationship to the lieutenants and the fighters, locate command centers and bases of operations and stores of munitions, map vulnerabilities such as routes to the border, tunnels under the borders and routes inside the U.S. (called “illicit pathways”), get inside the decision-making to anticipate movements, and execute attacks to thwart those activities. To understand the Trump approach to the southern border and the cartels, it is important to recognize that whatever SOCNORTH, the CIA, the covert special operators, the regular military, homeland security and the diplomats have been doing at the southern border and in Mexico over the past decades, they have little to show for their efforts.
Author: www.kenklippenstein.com
Published at: 2025-08-24 23:00:03
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