U.S. 'secret war' expands globally?

The Washington Post had a June 4, 2010 article titled: "U.S. 'secret war' expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role". It would seem that the Obama Administration is using more and more secret teams to go in and take out dangerous radical groups.

Is this bad?

I had been proposing this since 9/11. I brought this up again and again, at least to family and friends, back when we entered Iraq under the pretenses of having information leading to Iraq having Weapons of Mass Destruction and there being a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda; a contention I never bought, nor understood. Even when the Bush White House said they had intelligence indicating this to be true I didn't believe it. I thought, well I suppose its possible, but I found it hard to believe for obvious reasons. Why did Congress?

My contention then, as it is now, is that we should not send in mass amounts of troops. What we needed, were smaller, specialists hit squads. Yes, this sounds scary. Yes, these have been misused the world over by dictators, terrorists, War Lords, Crime bosses. But which makes more sense, sending in many American Troops to lose their lives on blanket, shotgun-like approaches to taking out the bad guys? Or sending in special small teams, with proper intelligence, to only mark and remove those individuals that would best server our goals and save the most lives?

You can argue all kinds of things about this. It could go over limits. How to do you control it? Are there moral or ethical implications? On and on.

But look at what we have now. How many have been killed on both sides? How many innocents? Wouldn't it have been better to send in the smaller teams, targeting specifics, than using bombs, war theater tactics, shooting missiles from afar and using drones? Even if specialist squads killed a few innocents (which I'm thoroughly against, but that's yet another topic), how many have we killed now, using our current tactics? I doubt we could even approach the current numbers.

This is not political assassination. This is targeting specific individuals or groups, to strategically and surgically, take out those who are actively supporting the killing of people out side the intent of their goals. My point in that statement is, when a group wants the US out of their country, killing US citizens, or their own, and typically innocent people, is out side the intent of their goals.

Terrorists justify their murderous actions because they are too small, too poor, too powerless, etc., and so they use larger than life actions to draw attention to their group, their goals or their issues in order to get their way, or bring popular or media attention to their cause to help achieve their goal(s).

But this has gotten out of hand. Frequently, their original goals change over time, or they lose track of their intention, or to maintaining their core beliefs and begin to rationalize. Since they do NOT have a centralized government to support and guide them, it is easy for them to lose their way. Yes, it can be easy for a state governed group to lose site of their origins; but far easier for those run by a small rag tag committee, or war lord, or a rich deluded ex national businessman.

Mostly these people are lost, missing something in their lives, and want to subvert process to attain goals through ANY means possible. That might be understandable. But it is just as understandable that someone would want to stop them. Which is just as reasonable and has just as much weight. Once a terrorist organization kills innocent people, they lose the right to be justified and righteous.

The same is true of a nation state. And they should be called to task by the world stage, the UN, and their allies. But for terrorists, they have none of this. And so they need to be put down like rabid dogs as swiftly as possible by any means possible, just as they do. But care needs to be used in not harming innocents.

Not harming innocents, is the core concern in all of this. For some Muslim extremists to say that the killing of some Muslim innocents is okay and they will receive their reward in Heaven, is ludicrous. And those terrorists will burn in a special Muslim Hell of their own making.

So, let's start bringing back the Troops, and go silent on these killings. Less talk, more action. Release the dogs of war. Let loose the Delta Force. Let's just see things get cleaned up. The terrorists should simply start to disappear in their sleep, wake up dead or gone, and no more attacks be done.

Those in charge of these teams, need to be conscious of the need to do right, to execute with need and justice, and avoid at nearly all costs, the loss of innocent life. Because once they start killing innocents, they are out on the same limb for which they are out there removing those rotted and diseased souls who have lost their way themselves.

Tomorrow's Blog: What is Art? Who is an Artist?