Diplomacy Is Warfare, Now Undisguised
So much for the role of ambassadors: Donald Rumsfeld, elite Cold Warrior of a bygone era and present Secretary of Defense, has inserted the military into embassies around the world as rapid-deployment operatives to conduct manhunts and terrorist camp attacks, as well as to provide intelligence-gathering and operational planning, all without being in any way subject to the oversight of diplomatic staff and superseding the CIA. Now if I was a Latin American, Middle Eastern, or Asian nation suddenly faced with an embassy full of combat troops, I’d probably be on the phone to Washington daily, just to be sure if anything was scheduled to happen, I might be able to do something about it. Like complain. That’s all I’d be left with, after all, isn’t it, now that Rummy’s found a way to extend America’s superpower hegemony without resorting to full-scale war.