As if their ineptitude hadn't already reached epic proportions, the Pentagon is pushing hard not to be held accountable by anyone, especially the State Department or the CIA.
The Pentagon is promoting a global counterterrorism plan that would allow Special Operations forces to enter a foreign country to conduct military operations without explicit concurrence from the U.S. ambassador there, administration officials familiar with the plan said.
The plan would weaken the long-standing "chief of mission" authority under which the U.S. ambassador, as the president's top representative in a foreign country, decides whether to grant entry to U.S. government personnel based on political and diplomatic considerations.
The Special Operations missions envisioned in the plan would largely be secret, known to only a handful of officials from the foreign country, if any.
The notion of the military running amuck in any country, completely without any knowledge of the local ambassador, already portends a foreign policy disaster but if you really need to be pushed on the point, the Post offers anecdotal evidence:
In one instance, U.S. commanders tried to dispatch Special Forces soldiers into Pakistan without gaining ambassadorial approval but were rebuffed by the State Department, said two sources familiar with the event. The soldiers eventually entered Pakistan with proper clearance but were ordered out again by the ambassador for what was described as reckless behavior. "We had SF [Special Forces] guys in civilian clothes running around a hotel with grenades in their pockets," said one source involved in the incident, who opposes the Pentagon plan.
I'm no expert, but carrying grenades around in your pocket in a foreign hotel sounds like an awfully bad (and messy) idea...
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