>A mission of men armed to the teath, invading some BS hideaway in the middle of nowhere, with helicopters, ultra-modern technology and support from their base.
This is the description of every high profile special-operations mission in the last century. But the reality is that those mission carry a much higher risk of failure than most other military operation, and phrasing it in the way you chose doesn't remove the inherent disadvantage of the assaulter or the extreme complexity of the mission.
There is no shortage of failed special operations missions or dead operators. With plenty of recent examples such as the failed Bulu Marer hostage rescue attempt in 2013 or the Chinook shootdown in 2011. Even the Bin Laden operation would have looked completely differently had one of the pilots not managed to miraculously crash-land the helicopter with minimal damage.
I recommend reading something like Fearless[1] to get a better understanding of how those missions look like and what risks they entail, and why "ultra modern-technology" or "support from base" often don't mean that much.
This is the description of every high profile special-operations mission in the last century. But the reality is that those mission carry a much higher risk of failure than most other military operation, and phrasing it in the way you chose doesn't remove the inherent disadvantage of the assaulter or the extreme complexity of the mission.
There is no shortage of failed special operations missions or dead operators. With plenty of recent examples such as the failed Bulu Marer hostage rescue attempt in 2013 or the Chinook shootdown in 2011. Even the Bin Laden operation would have looked completely differently had one of the pilots not managed to miraculously crash-land the helicopter with minimal damage.
I recommend reading something like Fearless[1] to get a better understanding of how those missions look like and what risks they entail, and why "ultra modern-technology" or "support from base" often don't mean that much.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Undaunted-Ultimate-Sacrifice-...