The Daily Beast reports that the Trump regime is considering removing Trump from the loop and delegating more authority to the Pentagon, allowing them to launch raids on their own initiative.
In declared war zones, U.S. commanders have the authority to make such calls, but outside such war zones, in ungoverned or unstable places like Somalia, Libya, or Yemen, it can take permissions all the way up to the Oval Office to launch a drone strike or a special-operations team.
Trump’s subsequent defense of the Yemen raid, and discussion of accelerating other counterterrorist operations, shows his White House will be less risk averse to the possibility of U.S.—or civilian—casualties, unlike the Obama White House, which military officials say was extremely cautious to the point of frustrating some military commanders and counterterrorist operators.
I have mixed feelings about this because everything Trump touches turns to shit and, consequently, this may or may not be a better path forward for men and women in uniform.
But speaking of service members, seniors officers and generals should have their own reasons to be concerned because this seems like a very convenient way to throw them under the bus when things go wrong. Just yesterday, Trump washed his hands of responsibility and blamed the military for the disastrous raid in Yemen. "They lost Ryan" Trump said, referring to the Navy SEAL who was killed in action.
Taking Trump out of the loop would provide him with plausible deniability for the actions of American forces that are technically under his command.