Pleased with the 2011 assassination raid against Osama bin Laden, US officials say President Obama has been consistently expanding the authority of elite special forces units under the JSOC command to plan and launch similar attacks worldwide.
Though special forces have played an ever-increasing role in US wars in several war zones, this authority expands worldwide, allowing the forces to launch attacks against “terrorist threats” anywhere on the planet, including countries not seen as necessarily part of any war.
The creation of this new “elite” force with this broad new authority included Obama defining “best practices” for special forces killings outside of conventional conflict zones. The details of this are totally unclear, though officials say these rules are distinct from the rules for the CIA’s own assassination programs worldwide.
The big shift is to transition this active assassination force away from its traditional position underneath geographic military commands into its own distinct command with worldwide purview. This allows them not only to have a more unilateral structure, but to have access to intelligence across the world for deciding on such operations.
Oh, so for stupid stuff like this the lame duck President does have the time and energy suddenly. This clown can’t leave the White House soon enough.
Not so stupid for the people his death squads kill.
Committing last minute war crimes on the way out the door. A fitting end to the “Peace Prize” presidency.
As he goes around the world talking about “democratic values”.
Someone should point out to him that an Executive who has kill lists, weekly meetings about who to kill, and assasins numbering in the thousands is pretty much the opposite of “democracy”. I’d say that its closer to King George III, but ol’ King George was a pussy-cat compared to this.
But then again, I suppose anyone saying such a thing openly has to worry about becoming the next name on Obama’s kill-lists.
Obama has murdered a huge number of innocent people with his drones and assassins. He will be remembered for the drone war, he cannot keep the truth hidden for ever.
The US is now at war with the whole world, except for a very few allies who join us in attacking the world.
This can only come to a bad end, as over extension always does.
It is not even hubris of arrogance anymore. It is simple bureaucratic momentum. There is not real thinking going on, as in yes/no and options and trade offs. They just do it, ever more of it.
and what is ironic is those allies are horrible human rights abusing dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Misery loves company.
Everyone thinks Obama is a milk toast liberal who doesn’t want to engage militarily overseas. That is a complete joke. After reading the book Dirty Wars, Obama is an extremist assassin. The man is a butcher who has slaughtered many, many innocents while claiming he is a man of peace. This is why the rest of the world doesn’t listen to his or his compatriots lectures on human rights for he is the biggest human rights abuser on the planet.
Supposed “military” death squads operating at the whim of a US president or some colonel he delegates authority to is our bonus for having this Nobel Peace Prize winner as president. And the public neither hears about it or cares.
Instead the MSM floods us with fake news about “Russian propaganda” outlets. So these American “special forces” are killing at will everywhere? Will they be wearing American military uniforms, in accordance w/ the Geneva Conventions and US Articles of War? Doubtful. So really they are intended to be hit squads just like Mafias or drug cartels use. With better equipment and training. Lovely.
Imagine if Moscow or Beijing military sources announced this new kind of plan? Russian/Chinese/Iranian hit squads? Ho hum? Imagine the outrage if any were found in the US or allied nations.
But for the World’s Indispensable Democracy, this announcement is business as usual. No need to enquire further. Body counts will of course be closely guarded State Secrets.
Apart from the legal and moral questions, how much does it cost to maintain this elite force of assassins? Using all the latest technology, how much does the average head on a stick cost?
Typically the “senior terrorist leader” target is immediately replaced with his brother, cousin, son, or a random goatherd from the next shack. Every Islamic terrorists wants to die in battle and therefore a succession plan is already established; no terrorist leader is expecting to die in his bed of old age.
Bin Laden was right; America will bankrupt itself attacking ten dollar targets with million dollar weapons.