Covert Operations Fail More Often than Not, so Why Do Leaders Order Them?

[rangerrebew]

Covert Operations Fail More Often than Not, so Why Do Leaders Order Them?

Erica De Bruin | 09.30.21

Michael Poznansky, In the Shadow of International Law: Secrecy and Regime Change in the Postwar World (Oxford University Press, 2020)

During the Cold War, the United States undertook an extraordinary number of attempts to overthrow foreign governments. These interventions were mostly conducted in secret, and the majority failed to achieve their aims. One recent tally identified sixty-four covert operations and six overt ones between 1947 and 1989, with less than 40 percent of the covert operations installing a new regime in power. Some of these failures are quite well known. The Bay of Pigs intervention in Cuba, for example, not only failed to remove Fidel Castro from power, but also brought Cuba closer to the Soviet Union and helped precipitate the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even those operations that appeared successful at the time often had negative repercussions in the longer term. This was the case in Iran, where the United States helped oust Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh from power in 1953—but in doing so, also fueled anti-American sentiment and contributed to the 1979 revolution.

Why would the United States continue to pursue a strategy with such a poor track record? The central contention of Michael Poznansky’s fascinating and well-researched new book, In the Shadow of International Law: Secrecy and Regime Change in the Postwar World, is that the explanation lies in international law. In 1945, the principle of nonintervention, which holds that states should not violate the sovereignty of others, came to enjoy the status of international law through incorporation into the charter of the United Nations and subsequent adoption in the charters of the Organization of American States and other regional organizations. Once it did so, overt efforts to oust foreign rulers from power became costlier. States that abrogate their formal commitments undermine their credibility and open themselves up to accusations of hypocrisy.

https://mwi.usma.edu/covert-operations-fail-more-often-than-not-so-why-do-leaders-order-them/

[Cyber Liberty]

Because of the rare cases when they do work.

[sneakypete]

They weren't very covert if this Bozo knows about them.

Then again,it is the NATURE of covert operations that  the successful ones remain secret.

Duhhhhhh!

BTW,the ONLY reason the Bay of Pigs invasion failed is because our punk President punked out again and allowed all those people to die on the beach or be captured and tortured because he had no balls.

He was asleep when PT-109 was rammed and sunk by the Japanese destroyer that night and didn't even know what it was their ran over,and he was asleep in the Oval Office when he condemned all the people he promised to help die or become enslaved and tortured.

JFK,like the rest of the Kennedy Klan was a gutless punk.