brandon webb, you're a former navy s.e.a.l.at kind of mission, to send special operations forces in a helicopter, i assume other helicopters are hovering overhead, fighter jets hovering overhead, you've got to be worried this could be a trap and these guys lives' could be in danger. how do you mitigate that? >> it's tough. traditionally, special operations operate exclusively in the nighttime environment where you can leverage technology, the night vision and thermal imagery. to do a daytime pickup like this is extremely risky. the ac-130 gunship will not fly as standard operating procedure in daylight. you have an overcast which makes it extremely to put a predator drone overhead to monitor the situation. so daylight pick up like this is extremely risky. what's interesting, too our sources, in a story we wrote, said they had for through months joint special operations command had eyes on bergdahl. it makes me question this whole sense of urgency around this exchange, when they had eyes on him for three months leading up to thi

brandon webb. he's now editor of sofrep.com. the special operations forces situation report. atures news and analysis from military and special ops vets. brandon, let me start with you. if you're dropped into iraq under these conditions, i mean, what possible influence can you imagine having given the scale of the chaos there? >> well, we have to remember, you know, this is a mission that the green berets are very familiar with. a lot of these guys have existing relationships that they've developed with the iraqis, you know, during the second invasion. not that that makes a situation any better, but they do have -- they do stuff daily, but, you know, it just -- really what concerns me is the special operations community as a whole is really fraying at the edges. we've been at war for over a decade, and we're now starting to see major issues at home. these guys are doing sometimes 10, 12 back-to-back-to-back deployments. >> wow. >> and it's taking its toll. >> it does seem in this era, spencer, that in the obama era, if there's one central -- if the defining strategy of the oba