It's a provocative headline.

A more reasonable statement of the army standing orders / Rules of Engagement would be:

    > The military has authorization to counter-attack an *invading force* without waiting for further approval from the command chain

I've emphasized invading force – it's not a general free-for-all fire-at-will.

This is a standing order which dates back to 1952, and hasn't been created as a response to the recent aggressive posturing.