From the NYTimes:
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 am interested to see what else will spill out of the mouths of White House insiders in the wake of the rise of Obama. What other executive orders do we still not know about? Will Obama actually reverse them?
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.
- A.S. Noel
3 comments:
Better question(?): How long can American forces go willy nilly into other countries without their approval until said country retaliates?
Or, what's the matter with sovereignty?
What does retaliation mean?
Obviously no country will ever directly attack the United States, as that would be suicide.
However, retaliation by Pakistan and other nations would most likely be an anti-American backlash, unseating Pakistan's democratically elected president, perhaps through a coup (which always happens in Pakistan) or a much worse possibility, through the election of a radical Islamic government hostile to the West. As Pakistan is a nuclear power, this is an incredibly scary thought.
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