Clear and Present Danger/YMMV


 * It Gets Better
 * Literal Genie:
 * Magnificent Bastard: Cortez, Cortez, and again Cortez. The man gets away with manipulating several drug cartels and the US forces sent to hunt them by playing them like a fiddle. He's no coward, either: his Crowning Moment of Magnificent Bastardry involves  Holy shit.
 * No One Gets Left Behind: ultimately played straight.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: the US uses a lot of morally questionable and highly illegal methods to combat the drug trade, and some of the methods actually work. On a smaller scale, law enforcement agencies--the Coast Guard and an Alabama police department--use similarly extralegal tricks to bring about justice, and the climax features Clancy notes that success doesn't justify the illegal nature of many of those actions.