Washington // The Pentagon is quietly seizing more control over decision-making in conflict zones where the US is involved, deploying hundreds more troops with little public debate and seeking greater authority to battle extremists across the Middle East and Africa.
Last week it was Somalia, where president Donald Trump gave the military more authority to conduct air raids on Al Qaeda-linked militants. This week it could be Yemen, where military leaders want to provide more help for the Saudi-led coalition’s battle against Iran-backed rebels. Key decisions on Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are looming, from ending limits on troop numbers to loosening rules that guide commanders in the field.
The changes during Mr Trump’s first two months in office underscore his willingness to let the Pentagon manage day-to-day combat. Under the Obama administration, military leaders chafed about micromanagement that included commanders needing approval for routine tactical decisions about targets and personnel moves.
But delegating more authority to the Pentagon – and combat decisions to lower level officers – carries its own military and political risks. Casualties, among civilians and American military personnel, may be the biggest.
The deepening involvement in counterinsurgency battles, from the street-by-street fighting in the Iraqi city of Mosul to clandestine raids in Yemen and elsewhere, increases the chances of US troops dying. Such tragedies could anger the American public and create trouble with Congress at a time when the Trump administration is trying to finish off ISIL in Iraq and Syria and broaden efforts against similarly inspired groups.
Similarly, allowing lower level commanders to make quick decisions on air strikes in densely populated areas like Mosul could lead to more civilian deaths. The US military already is investigating several bombings in Mosul in mid-March that witnesses say killed at least 100 people.
Alice Hunt Friend, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, cited yet another concern: military operations becoming “divorced from overall foreign policy” could make both civilian leaders and the military vulnerable to runaway events.
“Political leaders can lose control of military campaigns,” she warned.
But US military leaders say they need to be able to act more quickly against enemies. And they have been staunchly supported by Mr Trump, who has promised to pursue extremists more aggressively and echoed the view of Pentagon leaders that the Obama administration’s tight control over military operations limited effectiveness.
Explaining his request for more leeway in Somalia against Al Shabab militants, Gen Thomas Waldhauser, head of US Africa Command, told Congress this month that more flexibility and “timeliness” in the decision-making process was necessary.
Approved by Mr Trump on Wednesday, it was hardly the first military expansion.
The defence department has quietly doubled the number of US forces in Syria, moved military advisers closer to front lines in Iraq and publicly made the case for more troops in Afghanistan.
According to officials, the White House is tentatively scheduled this week to discuss providing intelligence, refuelling and other assistance to the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Some changes are happening with little fanfare. While there is limited American appetite for large-scale deployments in Iraq and Syria, additions are coming incrementally, in the hundreds, not thousands.
Mr Trump has not eliminated Mr Obama’s limits on troop number – the caps of 503 for Syria and 5,262 for Iraq are still in effect. But the military is ignoring them with White House approval and using a loophole to categorise deployments as temporary. For example, several hundred marines and soldiers were recently sent to Syria to assist US-backed forces there, including in the fight to retake ISIL’s self-declared capital of Raqqa. All were deemed temporary, so not counted against the cap.
On Friday, the Pentagon said that officially there are 5,262 US troops in Iraq, while officials privately acknowledge at least 2,000 more there.
It is still early in the Trump administration. And as the White House juggles complex details of several military campaigns, it is dealing with tax reform, its faukure to repeal healthcare law, partisan infighting and expanding investigations into possible Russian ties to Mr Trump’s presidential campaign. Observers say the expanding military power may reflect the administration’s limited “bandwidth” at the But the military wants some decisions quickly.
Iraqi forces are trying to complete the recapture of Mosul, ISIL’ stronghold in Iraq, and more American advisers closer to the battle can help. The US-backed fighters in Syrian are closing in on Raqqa and the Pentagon is pushing to accelerate the effort. Conducting both operations at the same time, it argues, will put a lot of pressure on ISIL.
