Politics: Pentagon 1, Foggy Bottom 0

U.S. military officials authorized a raid on a diplomatic target in Iraq this week without informing or seeking approval from the U.S. State Department. Everything about this is vile, because the target was the Palestinian mission in Baghdad, and State Department officials weren't informed for 24 hours than anything had even happened, and appeared to still be functioning in the dark.

Of course, in any other country, if an embassy was raided and its foreign nationals taken into custody, it would be derided as an incident of abject terror rightly, and would not be allowed to stand. But, as one Marine was reported to have said, "We are the international law." Check out our bedside manner:

A convoy of armored vehicles surrounded the mission early Wednesday morning when a few Palestinian guards were on duty, Palestinian officials said. Troops then burst through the gates and began a search that lasted through the night. When the diplomats arrived in the morning, they were arrested, the Palestinians said.

Palestinian officials said that the military team was in the building for 24 hours, and that the contents of a safe containing $15,000-$20,000 in cash for payroll was confiscated, along with jewelry belonging to the wife of one of the diplomats.

"We said this is the Palestinian embassy and there is international law and we are not letting you in," said one Palestinian guard still at the mission today. "They said, `We are the international law, you have to let us in.' "

The soldiers used shotguns to blow open locked office doors, and confiscated books, files and computers, the Palestinians said.

Spokesmen for the United States Central Command in Tampa, Fla., and in Kuwait said they had no information on the status of the diplomats and other staff arrested at the Palestinian compound.

The administration official said the raid appeared to have been ordered by a Marine commander "carrying out his orders that armed individuals be rounded up."

In this task, the administration official said, diplomatic sensitivities were apparently given little consideration. "Marines don't get paid to worry about any other flags other than the Stars and Stripes, and this unit carried out its disarmament mission with relish and a hearty Semper Fi," the official said.

Real finesse work there, boys. Book 'em. (Thanks to Josh H. for bringing this to my attention.)