This is a question that's been bugging me for a couple of weeks. Lydecker can't seem to decide if he's a soldier or a spy. I have to defer to ScottN's expertise when he says that Lydecker isn't a Special Operations soldier but at the same time Lydecker does things that only a soldier can do... like ordering around other soldiers. So here's where we can debate the issue until the powers that be at Dark Angel decide to make a definitive statement on the issue.
THE EVIDENCE:
Soldier
He orders other soldiers around (Prodigy, Cold Comfort)
He gets into military bases without any questions being raised (Cold Comfort)
He calls in soldiers without explaining to them what they're chasing after or why. (Almost every episode)
He runs a program that is mostly military.
The CIA doesn't have authority to conduct operations within the States.
Spy
He doesn't wear a uniform.
He doesn't call anyone "sir"
His "soldiers" could be a SWAT team rather than actual soldiers per se.
He has much more autonomy than a soldier ought to have (Even more than the rogue general from Cold Comfort... that guy still had to wear a uniform).
I also remember scenes from the last episode, where he's working with the police to find Max. He sits in an office working with some subordinates and the discipline seems, well... nonexistent. His guys don't call him sir and don't seem to be behaving like soldiers at all.
So, is he a soldier or a spy?
Perhaps he is from Millitay Intelegence. (Like Col. Flagg on M*A*S*H.)
He's from a covert agency. A black operation that is so classified that its very existence is classified. Kinda like "Majestic 12" from Dark Skies and popular UFO lore. Or the Syndicate from The X-Files. Basically since he is part of a secret organization it operates independently of the normal rules that cover the military and the CIA.
Okay, almost a full season of episodes and still no definitive answer to this burning question! Lydecker was referred to as "colonel" but he doesn't look all that military to me. OTOH, he's still ordering soldiers around and they're still doing what he says. I wish the show's creators would make up their minds!
(BTW, ScottN, in the episode "Meow" Lydecker finds some dead soldiers and immediately recognizes them as Manticore Special Forces)
DW, I was working from my knowledge of the *CURRENT* *LEGAL* US Special Forces. I keep forgetting that this is in the future, probably a quasi-legal group, and almost certainly an alternate universe from ours.