Posted on 04/14/2019 5:28:20 AM PDT by BenLurkin
This week President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending a presidential declaration of a national emergency concerning Somalia for another year, calling the Islamist insurgency plaguing that country an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the US.
But even if that is the last extension of the declaration, US defense officials say the mission in the country is likely to take years to complete.
The fight there hinges on US Special Operations Forces being able to train an elite Somali army unit capable of defeating al Qaeda-linked militants on the ground. The commitment to the East African nation comes after the President has signaled a desire to reduce US troop levels across the globe and as the administration is in the process of withdrawing forces from Syria.
While officials say the effort is making progress, they tell CNN that the US training mission is likely to not be completed until 2026.
For nearly two years, a small team of US Special Operations forces has been embedded with the Somali National Army, assisting in the fight against the militant group Al-Shabaab. As well as advising on airstrikes and ground assaults, the Navy SEAL-led team's primary task is to train and build Somalia its own elite light infantry force.
Named Danab, which in Somali means lightning, the force currently numbers only about 500 soldiers, too few to carry out operations in a country with a coastline almost as long as the east coast of the US. The plan, US defense officials say, is to eventually build Danab into a force of 3,000 soldiers capable of clearing militants from villages and towns across Somalia.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
If they want to clean out Somolia, let’s start with Minneapolis and Leesburg, VA!
Don’t forget Lewiston, Maine!
Meanwhile back in Minneapolis....
Send Congress-thing Omar , make her a special envoy to Somalia,and she will sort it out in a pinch ( simply by killing all non Muslims in the country, including US personnel.)
Problem solved.( Heavy Sarc.)
Like an Islamic whore in Congress?
George H.W. Bush should have never intervened in 1992.
That’s how we ended up with enough Somalis that they could elect one of their own to OUR Congress.
Just three months with out an active conflict and half of DC would blow away.
And Bubba complicated things when he half-assed the military component (Black Hawk Down, anyone?) - let's wait on the UN to help us....
Excellent!
...???...just give them all Uber licenses
The only thing we should be doing in Somalia is bombing the **** out of those savages until every single one of them has been turned into pink mist.
Trying to train them is a fools errand.
L
Flamethrower tanks would speed up the process...
Somalis here are supporting the terrorists with our tax dollars.
The US spent six years in Iraq and over a decade in Afghanistan training and building local infantry forces...when is this exercise in futility going to end?
Just get out. Now
Yeah!!! JUST WHAT WE NEED......
ANOTHER endless pit into which we pour money, lives of young men, and ruinous effort, all in the name of “fighting terrorism.”
YAY USA!!!!
My SIL spent the last year in Somalia. He confirmed it was, indeed, a shithole.
He should have heeded the warning of Smith Hempstone, a veteran Africa hand who had served under President Reagan as a diplomat in the area: "if you liked Lebanon, you'll love Somalia."
I thought we voted to get out of these sh*thole countries. Training locals on US machinery always backfires when they use that training against us. Hello? anyone home?
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