One of the things which always drives me crazy is that ironclad belief that Americans have that they are “the best”, and so are their country, their army and, of course, their special forces. None of that is true, of course, but it especially not true in the real of special operations were the actual record of the US special forces is, at best, very average and, at worst, terrible. I have met a lot of special forces types, I have worked with a Deputy Commander of Delta, I have become a friend of a Colonel of the Spetsnaz Vympel, I have had the chance to spend an entire night with Spetsnaz GRU operators, and I have had an Israeli-American specialist who worked with most of the best known special forces as a teacher during a full semester-long seminar dedicated to the study of military coups and how they are organized and executed. But most of what I heard from them I cannot share.