How America decides which missions to give SEAL Team Six

Uncle Sam essentially took a page out of the same playbook that made Toyota a global powerhouse

Special forces
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Manuel J. Martinez/U.S. Air Force/Handout))

The global reach of the United States' military, and the Joint Special Operations Command in particular, was demonstrated again this weekend when a pair of highly publicized raids intended to capture terrorist masterminds in Africa were executed within hours of each other.

On Saturday, commandos from the Army's Delta Force successfully snatched Abu Anas al-Libi — an al Qaeda leader wanted for his involvement in the 1998 embassy bombings — off the streets of Tripoli, Libya, in a lightning raid. Earlier that day, SEAL Team Six operators assaulted a beachside villa in Barawe, Somalia, hoping to take key al Shabab figure "Ikrimah" alive. (They were forced to turn back following a protracted gunfight when it was determined that taking the target without killing him would be impossible.)

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