House’s ‘Irregular Warfare’ Provision Risks Unintended War – By Katherin Yon Ebright (Defense One) / Aug 1, 2022
It’s not clear how many of the lawmakers who passed the House defense policy bill were aware of a dangerous provision in it.
Congress may be sleepwalking the United States into war, potentially with a nuclear state. A provision in the recently passed House version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act would expand the U.S. military’s ability to use proxy forces for “irregular warfare” operations against Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China. It’s not clear how many lawmakers were aware of the provision—much less considered how the military’s use of foreign proxies can escalate into direct military conflict. The Senate should reject this dangerous measure in its consideration of the bill.
The House-passed bill codifies and increases the budget of the “1202 authority,” a provisional authority from 2018 that has allowed the military to secretly recruit, train, and pay foreign forces and private individuals to conduct irregular warfare operations on behalf of the United States. To date, 1202 programs have been non-kinetic in nature: information and intelligence operations targeting so-called “rogue regimes” and “revisionist powers” in Eastern Europe and East Asia, as the Pentagon sets its sights on great power competition. But nothing prevents the military from using the 1202 authority to send proxy forces into combat.
The 1202 authority was modeled on 10 U.S.C. § 127e, an earlier authority designed to give the military operational flexibility and greater access in its pursuit of groups like al-Qaeda and the Taliban. In practice, the 127e authority has been used to create and command shadowy proxy forces in at least 16 countries across Africa and Asia, including Niger, Egypt, and Yemen. The military’s 127e proxies—such as the Danab Brigade in Somalia, a force of 1,000 fighters who take orders and salaries from U.S. troops—are regularly instructed to conduct patrols, raids, and kill-or-capture missions against terrorist targets. At times, U.S. forces join their proxies in the field, themselves engaging in combat and taking casualties.
