U.S. stealthy war on terror expands, deepens; Special Operations forces take lead

to devote more of their force to global missions outside war zones. Of about 13,000 Special Operations forces deployed overseas, about 9,000 are evenly divided between Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Eighty percent of our investment is now in resolving current conflicts, not in building capabilities with partners to avoid future ones,” one official said.

Compared to the Bush administration, the Obama administration has substantially expanded and deepened the war against terrorist networks around the world. There are two reasons for this expansion.

• The Bush administration, too, spoke of the need to address the issues of terrorism and nuclear weapons proliferation, but took its eye off the ball by invading Iraq. The invasion, occupation, and stabilization of Iraq, a country with no links to terrorism and no nuclear weapons or the means to build them, have consumed huge human and material resources. These precious resources — among them intelligence gathering assets, analytical attention, and political good will both at home and internationally — were diverted from the war against terrorism and the effort to blunt the proliferation of nuclear weapons. While the United States was preoccupied with Iraq, al Qaeda and the Taliban strengthened their stranglehold over the tribal territories in northwest Pakistan and expanded their presence in Africa and central Asia; North Korea crossed the nuclear weapons threshold; and Iran made significant progress toward acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities.
• In contrast to the Bush administration, the Obama administration sees nuclear terrorism as far greater threats to U.S. security than cold war-era attacks by ballistic missiles (“Obama administration makes stopping nuclear terror key goal,” 21 December 2009 HSNW). The Bush administration ploughed billions into the Airborne Laser to target missiles during launch, but it fell short of the required range and was abandoned last year. Obama cancelled two other Bush-era interceptors. When the Kinetic Energy Interceptor’s mission was broadened from hitting launches to warheads in space, it became too large to use. The Multiple Kill Vehicle, aiming to destroy both decoys and warheads, became too heavy. The Obama administration, instead, has beefed up the effort to prevent terrorists from getting their hands on nuclear weapons.

It is interesting to note, though, that while the Obama administration has expanded the U.S. on international terrorism, it has based the justification for this war on narrower legal foundations. DeYoung and Jaffe note that the Obama administration has rejected the constitutional executive authority claimed by Bush and has based its lethal operations on the authority Congress gave the president in 2001 to use “all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons” he determines “planned, authorized, committed, or aided” the 9/11 attacks.