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FWIW this appears to be a weird American-only distinction, as “Special Forces” in the US military is a proper noun, where it’s a common noun in other anglophone
by psergeant 9y ago
FWIW this appears to be a weird American-only distinction, as “Special Forces” in the US military is a proper noun, where it’s a common noun in other anglophone militaries.
That is: in English, “special forces” and “special operations” are interchangeable descriptions, but the Americans broke this by naming a group of their special operations troops as “The Special Forces”. Much like the Brits and “The Royal Navy” rather than “a royal navy”.
- socceroos 9y agoAnother analogy would be how we lost the distinction between hacker and cracker.
- dajohnson89 9y agohave we? the distinction is pretty clear in my mind.
- mwilliaams 9y agoIt's because "United States Army Special Forces" is the actual term for the personnel known as Green Berets, whereas SEALs fall under NSW (Naval Special Warfare Command) and SOCOM (Special Operations Command).
- nradov 9y agoI don't think you understand how English works.
- psergeant 9y agoGo on