Military Role in U.S. Embassies Creates Strains, Report Says

[spindrifter]

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: December 20, 2006

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 — The expansion of the Pentagon’s presence in American embassies is creating frictions and overlapping missions that could undermine efforts to combat Islamic radicalism, a report by Congressional Republicans has found.

As the Pentagon takes on new roles collecting intelligence, initiating information operations and conducting other “self-assigned missions,” the report found that some embassies have effectively become command posts, with military personnel in those countries all but supplanting the role of ambassadors in conducting American foreign policy.

The report, completed by the Republican staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, concluded that Pentagon “enthusiasm” has blurred chains of command and has the potential to backfire by weakening American relationships abroad and setting back American counterterrorism efforts.

Even with the military strained by long-term deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has been steadily expanding its presence outside of declared war zones, dispatching troops to embassies in remote parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East to conduct counterterrorism missions and to train local militaries.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/washington/20embassy.html

[MadMaddie]

1. Ah...looks like another well laid out plan by the Administration..

anything they touch turns to shit...

[MADem]

2. Fucking GOP assholes. Fucking up some seriously GOOD duty, they are.

Attache work is great...if you don't throw your weight around like an asshole. You keep your head down, you do your work quietly, and you are HELPFUL to the Embassy staff. Who the fuck do the asswipes at the Pentagon think they are? Last time I checked the precedence list, STATE was out in front of DEFENSE.

Jesus H. Christ. These idiots are messing EVERYTHING up. This is SO wrong, and it needs to STOP.

[NYC]

3. Chalmers Johnson wrote about

things like this.

[Mojorabbit]

4. Forgive my ignorance

but..it seems to me that administrations come and go but the pentagon stays. Is this so? If so, then there is a serious problem when they send themselves on "self assigned missions". They sure seem to be expanding their role all over the world.
Who is really watching over them and how well are they doing it?