The tip of the spear : US Special Operations Forces - Opinion

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  • @kassem
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    @reka
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    Influential Ex-Aide to Obama Voices Concern on Drone Strikes - NYTimes.com
    ▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/us/influential-ex-aide-to-obama-voices-concern-on-drone-strikes.html?_r=0

    Sur le tintamarre fait autour du transfert du programme drones de la CIA vers le Pentagone : Pure opération de relations publiques qui, au minimum, ne changera pas grand chose en termes de victimes civiles et donc de transparence.

    Some close observers of the drone program disputed the widely repeated notion that moving it entirely to the Defense Department would necessarily make it more open, particularly if it is to be operated by the Joint Special Operations Command, among the least transparent elements of the military.

    “We know JSOC is far more secretive than the C.I.A., and that Congressional oversight is weaker,” said Naureen Shah, associate director of the Counterterrorism and Human Rights Project at Columbia Law School. She said that while units under the Joint Special Operations Command were accused of serious abuse of prisoners in Iraq, “it never had to face public scrutiny about it in the way the C.I.A. did.”

    #drones #FDG

    Kassem CC BY-NC-SA
    • @kassem
      Kassem CC BY-NC-SA

      The tip of the spear : US Special Operations Forces- ▻http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/201332811912362162.html

      Le JSOC est aussi la pierre angulaire de la stratégie du "entraînons les sauvages à combattre à notre place et se zigouiller entre eux pour préserver notre « intérêt national »", strategie qui ne peut qu’assurer le délitement du tissu social dans les pays concernés.

      The rise of US Special Operations Forces engaging in kinetic operations and direct action or in using their extensive military, psychological operations and war-fighting skills to train proxy forces in all the places where the US projects its power is alarming.

      The ascendance of an elite clique of ultra-warriors protected by the cloak of secrecy and pushing off responsibility for acts of violence to their proxies and allies, means that the tip of the imperial spear can tear through the social fabric of many a country without associated costs in blood and treasure and hidden from the view of the press and the public.

      And because such special operations do not require the sacrifices of an expansive force, the special operators can largely act without public outrage or demand for accountability. The old/new military philosophy of a light footprint is useful precisely because it allows for the war in the shadows to continue unabated and with impunity.

      Kassem CC BY-NC-SA
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