Posted on 10/27/2011 12:17:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — By the time U.S. military forces left Somalia in 1994 after entering the lawless nation more than a year earlier to stop a famine, 44 Army soldiers, Marines and airmen had been killed and dozens more wounded. Thus ended America's last large-scale military intervention in Africa.
But the U.S. has come back, using special forces advisers, drones and tens of millions of dollars in military aid to combat a growing and multifaceted security threat. This time the United States is playing a less obtrusive role but is focusing once again on Somalia.
While putting few U.S. troops at risk, the United States is also providing intelligence and training to fight militants across the continent, from Mauritania in the west along the Atlantic Ocean, to Somalia in the east along the Indian Ocean.
The Pentagon is paying a lot more attention to Africa than in years past, analysts say. ..
And, most worrisome to the United States, an al-Qaida-linked group in Somalia has recruited dozens of Americans, most of them of Somali descent.
"If you ask me what keeps me awake at night, it is the thought of an American passport-holding person who transits through a training camp in Somalia and gets some skill and then finds their way back into the United States to attack Americans here in our homeland," Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of the U.S. Africa Command, said in Washington this month. "That's mission failure for us."
U.S. and European officials also worry that AQIM is working to establish contacts with Boko Haram and al-Shabab, the Islamist Somali insurgent group.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Remember when life was simpler?
The propaganda less disgusting&distasteful?
The wag wag wag yur dog lamp is lit.
We Can't Wait.
NO .. neither can WE.
Somebody explain to me which Somali Muslims are the good ones and which are the bad ones. We’re supposed to trust Obama on this?
This is so wrong in so many ways - Obama has made a gigantic mistake!
Mogadishu. Khartoum. Sud Afrika.
O is a whisp of Shaka Zulu cross the motherlands of
the Earth.. or maybe just as dumb as clinton if he just gets a bunch of our side killed or taken over by radical Islam’s tentacles.
Do we really have to kick everyone’s butt in the world? What are our strategic interests in Africa?
Yeah. Wow. Oh Boy. Here We Go.
Anybody seen Congress, lately?
Correction - Obama IS a gigantic mistake
He’s forced to go Global, he’s in so deep and born lucky to have a military that does not quit... which is par for the course for the last few hundred years when it comes to that neck of the woods, you’re all in or hope the wild animals and pirates don’t get ya..
The outreach of Islam and Marxism is slowly eating away at what little is left of African democracies and its so rich with possibilities environment and natural resources.
Actually, we should have a presence of some sort there. Just not with this guy in charge.
Somalia Pirates.
Yeah, they're all either marching with the dregs of society in protests, or at fund-raisers.
BOHICA?
Our inillustrious Congress has made an even bigger one.
the GOP yet again are silent.
The anti war protesters hide behind their sofa’s until a republican is in office and then they will come out with their warmonger, , no more war signs.
We should not have been in Kosovo, Libya and certainly not in the rest of Africa.
You’re right, I agree. I am just concerned that we would make some attempt to go after EVERY dictator in the continent.
I don’t know, I guess we are getting really good at it...
Oil or more correctly untapped oil reserves and removal of oil producers that don't want to play nice,economically speaking. Namely Iran who now accepts euros for their oil instead of only dollars. Once the troops are drawn down from Iraq I believe Israel will move on Iran. The ME will get very hot for awhile so we are looking to cultivate other sources of oil and hopefully displace China in the process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Sudan#Oil
http://www.economist.com/node/15825780
The Horn of Africa is a very strategic place through which large numbers of our Navy's ships and civilian shipping pass. There has been no functioning government in most of Somalia for a long time, which is why the pirates can operate. Plus, Al Qaeda has figured out they can operate there for the same reason.
We aren't, however, sending troops to Somalia. Not after the Mogadishu fiasco. Instead, friendly local countries, like Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have been doing what they can to keep a lid on the situation. One reason we are helping Uganda with the Lord's Resistance Army, which is more of a gang of thugs than an army or liberation movement, is that they are helping us in Somalia.
Obama is a truly awful President, but not everything he does is wrong. Stopped clock and all that.
Rouge dictators are incompatible with the New World Order, hence the Obozo’s public statement last week of dictators like and kind to Qaddafi are on notice.
Nope....don't seem to be even 'present' anymore. Where are their voices? Looks like silence speaks volumes in this case and others. Not saying anything IS supporting it.
Africom was stood up and activated in 2007 under Bush. They serve a very important strategic function in the war on terror and more broadly (that’s all I’m saying), and show that we have learned some important things since the Clinton Mogadishu debacle... Wouldn’t you rather we support our allies in Africa with training, education, and intel and let them fight the Muzzies with their soldiers than try to do it with our own? Our soldiers in Africa are not in harms way, they are not involved in combat operations... Do a little research, go to AFRICOM’s web page... this command has been a very wise strategic investment and has nothing to do with Obama. You notice there is a war being fought right now (Kenya vs Somali Muzzies)? That’s why the current interest. There is a lot more going on in Africa than the Somali’s, and like it or not we gotta be there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.