Smoke rises over Kobani after an airstrike, as seen from the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, October 18, 2014 (Reuters)
Paul D. Shinkman, US News and World Report: 'Areas of Active Hostilities': Trump's Troubling Increases to Obama's Wars
The little-known term has prompted concerns in the military and CIA over whether the White House will protect them, after finally getting from Trump what they wanted under Obama.
The Defense Department is quietly scrambling to define a little-known term coined by the Obama administration that conveys vast authority over how and where it can fight wars, fearing that existing ambiguities could make military commanders less accountable and more liable under the administration of President Donald Trump.
At issue are what's called "areas of active hostilities," a term of art the Obama administration appropriated to identify where U.S. troops could operate with legal protections in places war has not been declared.
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WNU Editor: The blow-back on the intelligence community after 9/11 on the techniques and methods that they used to gather intelligence in order to go to war against Al Qaeda is probably still resonating in that community today. As for the Pentagon .... during the Obama administration their approach to warfare .... and the strict rules of engagement that it entailed .... certainly created a culture where officers were careful when it came to applying lethal force. I have lost count over the years on how many posts that I have put-up in this blog of U.S. officers screaming in frustration on the limits that they had when it came to applying lethal force .... and the lost of U.S. servicemen because of it. Fast forward to today .... President Trump wants to change the rules and scope on how combat decisions are made .... and I suspect that he is being strongly influenced by Secretary of Defense Mattis. Its going to take a while before the culture changes .... and considering how politicians have abandoned the U.S. military in the past .... this cautious approach and a demand for a better definition on what they can and cannot do is understandable.