It would seem to me that we, as a country, pretty much have our plate full right now. Two endless wars, an impending environmental and economic disaster on the Gulf Coast, high unemployment, and an economy still struggling to recover should be about all we can handle, one would think. But hey, there's always room for some good, old fashioned empire-building and military intervention into whatever nation we choose. After all, we can so why shouldn't we? That appears to be the thinking at the Pentagon (emphasis added) :
Here a war, there a war, everywhere a war war.
Ya think? Probably kind of like our government would react if Saudi Arabia or Iran carried out covert military operations here against Americans they perceived or suspected of being enemies of their respective countries.
Why not? They would just be following our example. Just label the detainees "enemy combatants" lock them up and throw away the key. Maybe toss in some waterboarding for good measure. Geneva Convention protections are so pre-9/11 anyway.
And to top it off:
"The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents.
The secret directive, signed in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus, authorizes the sending of American Special Operations troops to both friendly and hostile nations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa to gather intelligence and build ties with local forces. Officials said the order also permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate."
[...]
Its goals are to build networks that could "penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy" Al Qaeda and other militant groups, as well as to "prepare the environment" for future attacks by American or local military forces, the document said."
Here a war, there a war, everywhere a war war.
"But some Pentagon officials worry that the expanded role carries risks. The authorized activities could strain relationships with friendly governments like Saudi Arabia or Yemen...or incite the anger of hostile nations like Iran and Syria."
Ya think? Probably kind of like our government would react if Saudi Arabia or Iran carried out covert military operations here against Americans they perceived or suspected of being enemies of their respective countries.
"Many in the military are also concerned that as American troops assume roles far from traditional combat, they would be at risk of being treated as spies if captured and denied the Geneva Convention protections afforded military detainees."
Why not? They would just be following our example. Just label the detainees "enemy combatants" lock them up and throw away the key. Maybe toss in some waterboarding for good measure. Geneva Convention protections are so pre-9/11 anyway.
And to top it off:
"Unlike covert actions undertaken by the C.I.A., such clandestine activity does not require the president's approval or regular reports to Congress..."
You always seem to find the one flaw in my otherwise "perfect" plan.
All right. No whacking of foreign heads of state UNLESS they are involved in genocide. Is that OK???
Sam is right. Somebody's God is always behind someone's war...
One of the real scary things about our military right now is the number of high ranking officers that are dominionists (In a politico-religious context, "dominionism is the tendency among some conservative politically-active Christians, especially in the United States, to seek influence or control over secular civil government through political action. The goal is either a nation governed by Christians, or a nation governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law."
Many of these believe the US military is one of God's tools for fighting evil (other religions) and evangelizing the world. Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/
has documented example after example of this influence reaching from the service academies to the Pentagon.
This really explains a lot of our actions over the last decade.
To play Cheney's advocate (the new devil's advocate), who decides who is bad and needs taken out. What's to keep foreign black ops from seeing our president invading two countries, holding enemy combatants without their day in court, and limiting our civil liberties and therefore deciding he needs to be taken out? It's one thing to help freedom fighters when they ask for our help and still another to make that call for them. Sovereignty is a wonderful thing and shouldn't be messed with.
I thought ALL this clandestine and covert crap would stop when Peter Graves died. Wrong. The secretary will still "disavow any knowledge of your actions", apparently.
Boy, was Eisenhower ever RIGHT. Don't get me wrong, I am STILL "personally" in favor of sending out black ops teams to whack foreign bad guys like Castro, Ahmedinejad and Kim Hong Il but IF and only IF they REALLY deserve it. I think we should send over a team to talk to these guys first and tell them.."Look, we don't want to kill you, but if you don't straighen up and fly right, WE WILL." Look what happened to Khadaffi. That guy really cleaned up his act after we bombed his compound. Just saying, a word to the wise. The whacking of foreign heads of state should ALWAYS be the last alternative.
Now, what about bad guys who are NOT heads of state???? We should avoid pissing off our allies. But, those countries that are NOT our allies and don't have anything we want or need, bad guys hangin' over there are fair game. Albeit OUR guys ARE spies and covert ops dudes will most certainly be treated as such if caught.
Somebody DOES need to get a grasp on this. Isn't that Panette's job?????
P.S. It was my understadning that we haven't had a great dal of luck FINDING these Arab and other ethnic dissidents and absooutely NO LUCK at infiltrating their operations. Perhaps Petraeus is just posturing?
Sounds like a brilliant plan to raise the next generation of Middle Eastern kids into terrorists. Plenty of stuff for the radicals to use as Anti-American propaganda. Of course, as the wingnut crowd loves to remind us - "They hate us for our freedoms". It's got nothing to do with us sticking our noses and/or our military into everyone's business/backyard for the past 50+ years. Or the continuous stationing of troops in what they consider their Holy Lands. Couldn't have anything at all to do with those 2 things, could it ?
And while we're at it, I think we should take a page from the Bush playbook and rename Arabica coffee beans. They sound too...I don't know...Arab. Change the name to something more patriotic. Like Glenbecka or Palinica Coffee Beans. I mean, we all remember how great the "Freedom Fry" strategy worked.
i dunno, maybe being prepared to operate against Iran is a good thing...
Nice. And we wonder about Eisenhower's warning against the military industrial complex. This sounds straight out of one of those conspiracy theory novels.