What Hubris Does to Foreign Policy

Last Wednesday a secret incursion on the part of a squadron of US Navy Seals (pictured left) resulted in the deaths of approximately 25 'suspected' Al-Qaeda insurgents in Pakistan. The Navy Seals were immediately extracted by helicopter following the raid. Just today an anonymous source confirmed that President George Bush secretly approved orders to conduct incursions into Pakistani territory without the consent of Pakistani authorities. Now that the news is out, the US must be hoping that such a daring raid on the part of the most mythically awesome military organisation in the world will conjure up enough images of crazy Navy Seal ninja shit to deflect major criticism.

This marks one of the most hypocritical breaches of the sovereignty of foreign nations in recent memory. You will recall the heavy criticism the US leveled at Russia for breaching Georgian sovereignty by sending in troops to 'stabilise' the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The US defends this double standard by claiming that Pakistan has been insufficiently effective at fighting terrorist cells within its own borders. Yet, if the US wishes to be able to enter foreign countries and kill their citizens in order to serve its own interests, it must not get so worked up when Russia does the same. 

Unilateral military incursion into a foreign country's borders was not justified when Russia did it, and it is not justified now, especially when the orders are being given 'secretly'. There is no need for secrecy on this issue. The terrorists already know the US is trying to kill them. The only people the US administration was trying to keep in the dark by giving these orders quietly was the international community.