As reported in the NYT . . . Admiral William McRaven, head of US Special Operations Command, wants more leeway to deploy his people wherever he sees the need.
Adm. William H. McRaven . . . is pushing for a larger role for his elite units who have traditionally operated in the dark corners of American foreign policy. The plan would give him more autonomy to position his forces and their war-fighting equipment where intelligence and global events indicate they are most needed.
It would also allow the Special Operations forces to expand their presence in regions where they have not operated in large numbers for the past decade, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
So, in other words, what we're seeing is a push by a now almost heroic figure in the US military (remember: Special Ops include the Navy SEAL teams, currently at the top of the US's super-heroes list for the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden) to allow him to insert his guys anywhere across the planet in order to take out "bad guys" - all of this essentially under the radar (both literally and metaphorically speaking), with minimal accountability beyond Mr. Obama's Situation Room or the locked doors of hush-hush Congressional committees.
And this accords with so-called American values, how?
We've come a long way from the era of America's heroes being citizen-soldiers like Audie Murphy.
And, somewhere, George Orwell must be chuckling. 1984 is creeping up on us.
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