While most of the talk about the Pentagon’s proposals for various wars to President Trump has focused on requests for more troops in more countries, a much less publicized effort has also been getting rubber stamped, one giving commanders in those wars increasing autonomy on operations.
Buried in the details of almost every proposal from Iraq and Syria to smaller operations like US troops in Yemen and Somalia, there is always a mention of commanders wanting to be able to conduct strikes at will, both airstrikes and ground raids.
This has been a change that the Pentagon has been quite eager to seek, after years of complaining about President Obama “micromanaging” the various US wars, but it appears they may be trying to get a much broader collection of grants of autonomy than they’ve ever been granted before.
While President Trump is eager to make such moves early on to show that he is “listening to the generals,” granting so much autonomy to the military to fight its own wars without political oversight is risky business, since the president will ultimately be held responsible for what the military does.
The long term ramifications could be even more dangerous, as it further distances America’s direct foreign interventions from politicians, and by extension from the voters, turning the details of major military operations into little more than bureaucratic details for career military brass.
These major changes are happening in almost complete silence, as while there have been mentions of the Pentagon seeking these new authorities, always as an afterthought to getting more troops, there is little to no interest in debating the question.
Although our generals have been acting as though they were autonomous for a very long time, this further loosening of the bounds of civilian authority is truly dangerous, especially with our present aggressive posting of troops on the borders of Russia, China and Iran. The utter destruction of a country and its culture is just a job opportunity for these folks.
MY only honest question is how can Americans feel sorry for the troops when they start coming home in the body bags again? These countries never did anything to our country. We have destroyed their countries and don’t even want to provide civilians a place to stay.
The people are not human and I am finding myself not caring how many bodies come home, just pissed that my dollars are causing their death without me having any say and them being to F**King stupid to find a REAL JOB and not becoming a terrorist that they say they are protecting us from. These people need to be protected from themselves since they clearly don’t have enough brains to think for themselves. Mental Midgets are all this military consists of and I am tired of paying for it!
After 25 years or a straight war and Vietnam and all the others in between, I am IMMUNE to the death of American soldiers. They picked their job, why should I pay to bury a baby killer when we don’t even provide abortions in the USA without a fight? Hell let’s just turn all newborns over to the military and let them fed, house, clothe, educate, and kill them without us having any connection to them. Better than raising one and having liars come into the school offering a career, when they are only going into a body bag sooner or later. We are NOTHING BUT COLLATERAL DAMAGE! Hate me if you will, but time for someone to call a spade a spade, instead of being such a coward! 62% of our budget down a RAT HOLE to military!
As the economy worsens more and more kids will see the military as their only viable job opportunity. Living in mom and dads basement is not for everybody and employers tend to hire vets before others lacking such background. Finally, most kids leave high school without job skills and have been denied the information about American imperialist adventurism that you obviously have learned. I was one of those body-bag candidates you mention in Vietnam. Only after a college education (courtesy of the GI Bill) and years of independent thinking/research have I been able to see through the fog of propaganda leveled at John Q Public about this and many other matters. I suggest you engage the kids and share your opinions in a manner that may dissuade them from a short life and burial in an aluminum coffin. Thanks in advance. 🙂
The only thing people can do is stick together and fight like hell against this government. All I am interested in is letting people know they do have a choice, hell even the Trump kids is looking to hire immigrant workers, since he says he can’t get people to work.
How long until the cost of the coal mines start taking effect on the people who work in there regarding their health? With the military spending so much money it is just sad to see all of our kids being fed a crock by a government that only wants them for slave labor and to keep their feeding frenzy going strong. Imagine our society if we spent as much on health and education as we spend on killing around the world.
Keep people talking and most of all, make people start thinking for themselves, as well as educating themselves.
Thank you. Good advice and good luck.
You’re ahead of your time but there’s no better time to start. Trump is posing some serious threats on N.Korea and also with his increase of US troops to Syria.
That which you are suggesting could be revived even more than it was during the Vietnam era.
Most important is that Americans come to fear the increasing threat of nuclear war. That’s likely proceeding well with the Dems putting the lie to Trump’s mention of cooperation with Russia. Another reason why Trump should just bite the bullet and defuse it before the Dems destroy him completely.
Raimondo’s greatest fear, as he continues to hold out false hope of even one mention from Trump on US/Russia relations.
The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.
Dear Miss V, I wrote a polite, longish reply to your post above but, apparently because in an unguarded moment I wrote the common word for excrement in referring to the destruction of the Middle East, my post seems to have been censored. I promise the editors I will say “evil poo-poo” the next time.
That was an automatic filter, not created by me (apparently built into Disqus). As soon as I came in to moderate comments, I approved it.
Antiwar.com is not a government and therefore has no power to censor.
Dear Mr. Knapp, Thanks for the reply and sorry for my incorrect presumption.
Antiwar.com does censor but they do it in a way that nobody can be held responsible.
Not only does Antiwar.com not censor, Antiwar.com can’t censor. We’re not a government. We don’t get to tell you what you can or cannot say. We only get to decide whether or not you can use our property to say it on, from or with.
Like I said, antiwar. com censors but does it in a way that hides the person doing the censoring. No real libertarian would try to split hairs on what censoring means. You haven’t in the past but maybe that’s a principle that’s evolving with you now.
Just because you haven’t read what I’ve written in the past, that doesn’t mean I haven’t written it.
I’ve been moderating comments at Antiwar.com for years. In fact, I think it may be close to a decade now. And my response to whining about the non-existent “censorship” here has never changed. You have a right to say or publish anything you damn well please. You do not have a right to use Antiwar.com’s facilities to say or publish whatever you damn well please.
I don’t support the troops. If they don’t know how they’re being used before they go in, they’re living under the proverbial rock. If it’s for economic reasons, I’d rather live in my truck. The propaganda machine has put the troops on such a pedestal that it is impossible to be anti-war without also being anti-troops. I’m with you MissV.
I don’t blame poor kids in Pakistan for getting hoodwinked into joining Al-Qaeda and I don’t blame poor kids in Appalachia for getting hoodwinked into joining the Marines. I blame the vultures who prey on these kids and I pray that these kids on both sides come home safe and radicalized by their experience. I welcome them into the antiwar movement with open arms.
http://www.vvaw.org/
https://www.ivaw.org/
I suppose you could get hoodwinked into joining the mafia too but at some point you have to be able to distinguish between right and wrong. This s**t has been going on forever so I assume the majority of enlistees have had at least some exposure to what we are doing. I suppose I’m a little skewed because of the constant adoration. I can’t watch a sporting event without some corporate shill thanking someone in uniform for keeping us all safe. Personally, I think the troops eat that s**t up.
“…further distances America’s direct foreign interventions from politicians, and by extension from the voters…”
Make that “…and theoretically by extension from the voters…”
Trump is blatantly telling the people of the USA that we didn’t vote him in office, all the crooks helped him get to where he is today. Sad to see that he feels that he doesn’t owe any respect or obligation to the people who pay his salary. Trump needs to admit that he is over his head and bow out gracefully, before looking and sounding worse than Nixon “I am not a crook”
That’s right Trump just like you aren’t a cheater when it comes to golf.
He has NO CONCEPT of what is going on in the real world, another WAR MONGER CROOK! Trump needs to remember that THE PENTAGON IS NOT HIS EMPLOYER! We now OWN HIM!
Another idiotic move by Trump. He’s worse than Obama and I’m no longer sure he’s better than the queen b**ch.
In truth, the rhetoric on Russia was escalated for the purposes of the campaign. Trump once suggested improving relations with Russia in an effort to challenge Hillary and then Hillary escalated the anti-Russia rhetoric. Americans could be doing something useful they carefully revisited what was said during the campaign.
After Trump became president the Dems and the Dem media have kept the anti-Russia rhetoric going for the sake of destroying Trump.
Trump could have saved himself from the Dem attack that is destroying him if he had admitted right from the beginning of his presidencey that he had no intention of doing anything positive on US/Russia relations. Trump remaining silent on the issue hasn’t been adequate in stopping the Dems.
Maybe now is the time for Trump to pay the price for his foolishness of pretending he had good intentions toward Russia. The cost of admitting the lie to his supporters would likely be far less than the cost of allowing the Dems to use it against him.
Raimondo obviously still doesn’t understand this, as he continues to summon up history lessons for us in order to somehow make Trump not responsible for everything he’s doing to accelerate the US march to war.
Raimondo’s pseudo history lessons on WW1 have absolutely nothing to do with the threat Trump now poses with his position on N.Korea. It’s as if China doesn’t matter as long as he can hold out this false hope on US/Russia relations. There’s no longer any excuse for Raimondo’s behavioiur than stubbornness and his pride from which he can’t rise above.
Raimondo will have an explanation for why Trump is doing this. But it may take him 4 or 5 thousand words to say it so it’s an acceptable spin for his audience.
The Spotlight: Democrats’ Blind Obsession on Russia-Gate
by Daniel Lazare
A complete waste of space because the Dems have a winning strategy in the socalled Russia-gate issue, real or not.
It’s going to remain real as long as the Dems have sympathy in the cause from the majority of the people. And they do because Trump’s numbers are way down and there’s no possibility of him building on it with new supporters.
The Dems and their media have done the job on Trump so thoroughly that they have actually increased the anti-Russia sentiments of the people, far above what it was during the campaign.
The next move is Trump’s move and that is Trump somehow admitting that he misspioke the one time he mentioned improving relations with Russia. He never meant a word of it anyway.
My best guess is that the Dems will keep it alive until the next election. Even if it is illegitimate, it’s a situation of Trump having to prove a negative. That won’t happen. Even if Trump made every single American great again. LOL
“These major changes are happening in almost complete silence”
Sadly, Justin is a part of this silence. He appeared to be headed in the right direction last week. But now I’m not so sure. He’s like a yo-yo with Trump. No matter how far he spins from the hand that feeds he always spins back. It’s become downright dizzying.