I was reading this article in The New York Times about an order signed by then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld secretly authorizing the military to go into a number of foreign countries we weren't actually at war with to hunt down Al Qaeda targets:
The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.I'm still deciding whether I think this is a good or bad idea. I'm not sure anyone really knows how we're supposed to conduct this war on terrorism, but a part of me thinks you have to hit targets when the opportunity arises and not become Boss Hogg chasing after the Duke brothers having to stop at the county line when the General Lee makes that jump over the river. But that's just my first impression. Regardless, this directive sounds like something straight out of the movies.
These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.
In 2006, for example, a Navy Seal team raided a suspected militants’ compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, according to a former top official of the Central Intelligence Agency. Officials watched the entire mission — captured by the video camera of a remotely piloted Predator aircraft — in real time in the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorist Center at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia 7,000 miles away.
3 comments:
I have mixed feelings on this as well. On the one hand, if we continue to ignore the soveirngty of other nations, we're going to erode our already bad reputation.
On the other hand, going through diplomatic channels takes so much time and makes so much noise that oppotunities are lost; especially when the governments or some individuals in those governments are sympathetic or supportive of the terrorists. (Of course, see the point I made above for why so many are sympathetic or supportive of our enemies.)
I also think that these types of surgical strikes are less likely to cause collateral damage (i.e. harm to innocent civillians) than conventional attacks. That is deffinitely a plus. Then there is the fact that the Bush Administration is actually hunting down Al-Qaeda targets, which many doubted they even cared about since Iraq got most of the attention.
So is this worth the all the damage it will do to our reputation? I honestly don't know.
Fandango here.
I thought the Seals were founded under the Kennedy White House, because the military officials of the time foresaw the future (maybe) of smaller, clandestine type conflicts that required small, elite forces to get in and out without incident, and thereby minimizing collateral damage to innocent people. they must be doing these little acts all over the globe every day, don't you think? if their is a problem (whether potential or existing), these soldiers take care of it, and protect our freedom.
the story Swany posted definitely reminds me of "Patriot Games", when Ryan watched the team take out the training camp in Africa realtime.
Using the Predator planes is working well in other instances as well, i watched a 60 minute piece recently about an operation in Iraq where they tailed the insurgents via predator at 10,000 feet, and then called in massive artillery strikes and eliminated the threat. and they did it all without the Unit losing another ground troop.
i applaud that. a guy i knew from my elemenatary school days lost both his younger brothers in the last 3 years b/c of this ongoing conflict. he actually saw his 2nd brother die in the helicopter crash last summer (while he was on the chopper that didn't get hit), and then the govt brought him home since he had already lost his other brother, a sniper (kinda reminds me of Saving Private Ryan). i am frankly disgusted with how the Iraq thing turned out, so the more those elite teams can do to keep entire units from getting hurt, i support it.
If you liked that remote war sequence in Patriot Games, you should check out Body of Lies if it's still out in the theaters or get it when it goes to DVD. I've been meaning to post a review of it.
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