Shadow Wars

JSOC: The President's Secret Army

The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is the most elite and secretive military command in the US armed forces. Its existence was classified until the 1990s. Its budget is still classified. Its operations are almost never acknowledged publicly.

JSOC commands the military's most elite units: Delta Force (1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, Army), DEVGRU (SEAL Team Six, Navy), the 24th Special Tactics Squadron (Air Force), and the Intelligence Support Activity(ISA — a classified intelligence unit whose very name changes regularly to avoid detection).

Under the command of General Stanley McChrystal (2003–2008) and later Admiral William McRaven, JSOC was transformed from a hostage rescue force into a global manhunting machine. At its peak in Iraq, JSOC was conducting 300 raids per month — ten per night — a pace of killing and capturing that was industrial in scale. McChrystal described the model as a “network to fight a network.”

JSOC reports directly to the Secretary of Defense and the President, bypassing normal military chains of command. This gives the White House a private military force that can conduct lethal operations worldwide with extraordinary speed and minimal bureaucratic friction — and minimal congressional oversight.

As journalist Jeremy Scahill documented in Dirty Wars, JSOC operates under a “find, fix, finish, exploit, analyze” (F3EA) cycle that turns intelligence into killing at unprecedented speed. A target is identified, located, killed, the site is exploited for intelligence, and that intelligence generates new targets — an assembly line of death that operates 24/7/365 across multiple continents.

Signature Strikes: Killing the Unknown

Beyond the “personality strikes” that target named individuals, the US conducts “signature strikes” — attacks on people whose identity is unknown but whose behavior matches patterns associated with terrorism. A group of military-age men loading a truck. People exercising in a formation. Vehicles traveling in convoy near a border.

The most chilling aspect: under Obama-era counting rules, any military-age male killed in a strike zone was classified as a combatant unless posthumously proven otherwise. This means every man between roughly 15 and 65 killed in a signature strike was automatically counted as a militant — even though the government didn't know who he was when it killed him. The dead cannot prove their innocence.

This accounting trick dramatically understates civilian casualties. When the government reports that a strike killed “12 militants and 0 civilians,” what it often means is: “We killed 12 people we can't identify, and since they were military-age males in a strike zone, we're calling them militants.”

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Airwars, and other independent monitors consistently find civilian casualty figures many times higher than official US numbers. A 2017 Columbia Law School study found the US government's civilian casualty count was likely underestimated by a factor of 4 to 12.

Death From Above: Drone Strikes by Country

The Shadow War Economy: Who Profits From Secret Operations

Shadow wars are big business. The companies that build the drones, satellites, and specialized equipment for covert operations have strong incentives to keep the machinery of secret warfare running. Unlike conventional wars that generate public opposition, shadow wars can continue indefinitely with minimal political cost — a contractor's dream scenario.

The revolving door between the Pentagon, CIA, and defense contractors is particularly pronounced in the shadow war sector. Former SOCOM commanders routinely join drone manufacturers. Ex-CIA officials start consulting firms. NSA alumni found cybersecurity companies. The people who plan secret wars profit from them after leaving government.

Related reading: Private Armies examines the role of contractors in modern warfare, while Silicon Valley and the Pentagon explores how tech companies profit from surveillance and cyber warfare.

The Libertarian Case: Secret Wars Are the Death of Democracy

The Founders understood, with painful clarity born of experience, that the power to wage war is the most dangerous power a government can possess. That is why they gave it to Congress — the branch closest to the people, the branch that must face voters, the branch designed for deliberation and debate. James Madison wrote: “The Constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care vested the question of war in the Legislature.”

Today, the President of the United States can order the killing of any person on Earth — including American citizens — without a trial, without a warrant, without congressional authorization, and without public knowledge. Special operations forces wage war in 134+ countries under classified orders. The CIA conducts paramilitary operations that are officially denied. Drone strikes eliminate people whose identities are unknown based on behavioral patterns observed from 10,000 feet.

This is not what the Founders envisioned. It is the precise opposite. Secret wars concentrate the most lethal power in the hands of the executive — exactly what the Constitution was designed to prevent. A government that can kill in secret, with no accountability, is not a democracy. It is a tyranny with better PR.

The 2001 AUMF — 60 words drafted in the panic after 9/11 — has become the legal basis for a permanent global war. Congress has abdicated its most solemn responsibility. Presidents of both parties have eagerly seized the power Congress surrendered. And the American people, kept in the dark about where their troops are fighting and dying, cannot exercise the informed consent that democracy requires.

The solution is straightforward: repeal the 2001 AUMF. Require congressional authorization for any military deployment longer than 30 days. Declassify SOCOM operations. Subject the “kill list” to judicial review. And remember what the Founders knew: that a government trusted with the power to wage secret wars will wage them forever, against ever-expanding lists of enemies, until the republic itself is consumed.