Out of the comments from Meteor Blade's diary on ISIS mission creep came the headline for this story, it was deemed by the community worthy of a diary by itself.
Here is the quote in full:
On Wednesday, Hagel said, General Lloyd Austin, the commanding officer of US Central Command, will brief Obama on upcoming “targeted actions against [Isis] safe havens in Syria”, the clearest signal yet of an imminent expansion of an air war Hagel said would “not be restrained by a border in name only”. On the targeting list is Isis “command and control, logistics capabilities, and infrastructure”.
Follow me below the liberal constellation of Orangellius to discover how dangerously lost in space CentCom is.
International borders for countries are not entities in name only, as if the concept were some mere patter of syllables to the human ear. [sigh] We just got done lecturing the Russians endlessly on the sanctity of border in relation to country related to Ukraine, all kinds of international law and cultural norms are attached it.
Mr. Hagel, if there is somehow any doubt of this, oh my god, please head on down to the Mexican border, there are many, many bands of frolicking nutcase fanatics who would just love to set you straight on this.
The issue in Meteor Blade's diary is mission creep, but the matter here is freaking psycho brain creep, CentCom has decided that hell the United States can make up the rules of international law and combat on the fly! So conveniently with whatever these harbingers of violence wish to do, of course.
As one commenter stated, this isn't a game of Risk, every other country in the region and internationally sure as hell recognizes the legal concept of border. Cheating or flagrantly violating the rules will have real consequences for a real long time, none of them good.
Rogue is the word that comes most strongly to mind, the United States is in real danger of becoming a Democracy in name only, the law means nothing to us, borders mean nothing to us, human lives not even much as we unleash a massively lethal military.
With incredible quotes like this one inevitably sees a situation spinning completely out control in escalation, violence, or likely both. A country--not even the United States--cannot make up new rules and law on the fly, especially about war, and not expect a disaster. A terrible conflagration of death and failure, that can be the only eventual outcome to such twisted thinking and blatant disregard for law and social norms.
[opens hands briefly] A diary was asked for on this, I did what I could.