Red Flag

Thus I was more than slightly confounded to read this article in the Washington Post, describing how around the world the Pentagon is now running special forces operations in country which do not report to the Ambassador but merely 'inform' him or her of their work, presumably after they've rendered somebody, or assassinated somebody, or broken into the Prime Minister's home and made off with the family jewels. The story, indeed, was so unusual that the BBC issued its own report based only on the Post's story, a practice it does but rarely. Neither of these reports occasioned much (if any) comment in the blogosphere, but I thought I'd flag them because, if true, they mark a critical, radical shift in the US practice of diplomacy.

When the military takes the lead role from State, not just in specific situations like the Iraq War, but generally around the globe, the nature of our relations with other states changes quite dramatically. According to the Post the Pentagon has not consolidated its gains yet, but you can bet that other countries, friends and foes alike, will be watching these developments with the keenest interest.