Special Forces Rules . . . Get a Permission Slip First!

Special Forces Rules . . . Get a Permission Slip First!

Boy does THIS sound like a bad idea. Prior to the Pentagon issuing orders to our Special Forces, they will have to get a permission slip from the president. A bureaucratic process that takes TIME. And here I thought that Special Forces were supposed to be lightning-strike-type operatives. Silly me.

Didn't we learn anything from all the restrictions placed on the CIA and it;s intelligence gathering operations in the 90's? They were unable to deal with "disreputable individuals" when trying to track down terrorist ---holes. Why does this proposed rule give me the same itch on the back of my neck as those rules did?

The authors of the proposed rule try to get around this by saying that "traditional military activities" will not be affected. They define covert activities, those covered by the rules, as things designed to influence political etc. conditions in areas where the US is not known to be working. Why does this hair splitting not make me feel better? How long will it be before someone who disagrees with an administration either tries to change the wording to include "traditional military activities" or simply tries to block certain happenings based on this rule, regardless of the definitions involved? Remember, as many of these operations are time-sensitive, any delaying action they could take may be able to render the point moot and thus win their cause even if it were subsequently ruled to be an illegitimate challenge to an operation.

Congress to restrict use of Special Ops - The Washington Times

"We want to be able to deploy [special-operations commandos] in minutes and hours instead of days and weeks,' said the former special-operations officer. 'And this will get us delays. It will make it hard to kill terrorists by turning over deployment decisions to the Senate."