A little-known law gives the Pentagon carte blanche to engage our troops in combat

By Herbert Rothschild

Two weeks ago, when I wrote about our country’s far-flung combat operations, which the Department of Defense calls overseas contingency operations, I committed to tell you in a subsequent column about the 127 Echo program. It allows our military to meddle militarily in the affairs of other nations without getting specific congressional approval. Indeed, I suspect that few members of Congress, much less the general public, know where many of those operations are being conducted.

The original legislation that bears the colloquial name 127 Echo was a section of the 2005 National Defense Authorization Act with a $25 million appropriation attached. Now it exists as Section 127e of Title 10, U.S. Code, support of special operations to combat terrorism. It reads in part, “The Secretary of Defense may, with the concurrence of the relevant Chief of Mission, expend up to $100 million during any fiscal year to provide support to foreign forces, irregular forces, groups or individuals engaged in supporting or facilitating authorized ongoing military operations by United States special operations forces to combat terrorism.”

Legally, the Defense secretary must notify the House and Senate Armed Services committees shortly before or in some cases shortly after an operation begins. According to a report released by the Cost of War project at Brown University in December 2021, “The executive branch has consistently failed to report on the introduction of U.S. service members into imminent hostilities in countries with active programs under 127e. Investigative journalists have documented 127e programs in Mali, Tunisia, Cameroon, Kenya, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, and Mauritania. Of these, Mauritania, like Mali and Tunisia, has never been mentioned in presidential AUMF (Authorization of the Use of Military Force) citations.”

The following year, The Intercept, using the Freedom of Information Act, obtained a new document officially confirming that, in addition to those 127 Echo operations in Africa, as recently as 2020 there were at least 14 127e programs in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. In total, between 2017 and 2020, U.S. forces conducted at least 23 separate 127 Echo operations across the world.

What we do is partner militarily with governments or paramilitaries or even private forces to achieve whatever goals those in charge of our national security operations think are in U.S. interests. The “Leahy Act” requires the U.S. to vet the human rights records of our military partners, but the Defense Department has exempted our 127 Echo partners from that requirement, so it is free to work with anyone it wants. Our partners do our fighting for us, although at times our troops engage. The four U.S. Army servicemen killed in Niger in 2017 were part of a 127 Echo operation there.

Included in the information The Intercept obtained was confirmation by Joseph Votel, a retired four-star Army general who headed both Special Operations Command and Central Command, of 127 Echo operations in Lebanon as well as Syria, Egypt and Yemen. While most of our interference in Lebanon has been aimed at suppressing Hezbollah, a Shiite political and military faction, the elite G2 Strike Force that we have trained, armed and directed focuses mainly on Sunni organizations like Al Qaeda.

The factionalism in Lebanon is dizzyingly complex and has shifted many times since its central government, a delicate balance of shared power by religious groups, broke down in 1975 and plunged those poor people into grave suffering, which has only worsened over time. Nonetheless, in Lebanon as in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, the U.S. hasn’t hesitated to side with whichever factions seem least inimical to our perceived interests. It’s hard, though, to identify any enduring successes to justify our deadly meddling. We seem to get embroiled ever more deeply and offer flashpoints for wider wars.

There is general agreement in this country that China is our major rival, if not enemy, for global preeminence. None of its forces are engaged in combat abroad. And while we have perhaps 800 military bases in more than 70 countries, China has one military base outside its own territory, a naval base in Djibouti. It has financed port construction in 48 developing countries and could presumably induce some of them to provide docking facilities for its warships. To date, however, it hasn’t done so. Instead, it keeps strengthening its ties to other nations by aid and trade.

As of August, 155 countries had signed up for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which invests in their physical infrastructure. Those countries include almost 75% of the world’s population and account for more than half of its gross domestic product. China is the largest direct trading partner of more than 62 countries and runs surpluses with them. The U.S. is a distant second at 31 and keeps running large deficits. Whatever its ultimate intention, for now China is doing well in the world by doing good in the world.

Our dying empire is in the grip of the military-industrial complex, which is only hastening its demise. Before the end comes, I suspect we’ll inflict significantly greater pain on ourselves as well as others.

Herbert Rothschild is an unpaid Ashland.news board member. Opinions expressed in columns represent the author’s views and may or may not reflect those of Ashland.news. Email Rothschild at [email protected].