The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.By "authority" they of course mean "doing it without any legal authority, without telling anyone, then refusing to suffer any consequences or pay any price from any international body or court." That isn't so much authority or the authority to do something as a sort of a declared right to do whatever you want for whatever reason. But Donald Rumsfeld did sign off on something and while it was promptly shredded so no evidence would remain, he told certain people the general outline of it, swore it was legal, reminded everyone his word was law, then engaged in secret raids into countries.
These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.
Not that I'm against this type of action to capture and kill terrorists harbored in other countries. Well, the terrorist killing part, not so much the Iranian recon missions that seems to presage some future war or the other secret wars we try to be starting up. But can we not pretend we have some authority or legality behind us to run into another country, shoot some shit up, capture, kill, or none of the above a target and then scamper back to our safe confines? It doesn't really matter how big a double thumbs up Rumsfeld gave. Just because you wrote it on paper doesn't actually make it law. Can someone tell Obama that too. On a official piece of paper.
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