A map of the Sahel region showing where Al Qaeda operates (AFP/Graphic)
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 ...
I remain sceptical. Anyway, why not let the Chinese and the Muslims duke it out in Africa? You never see China being anyone's good guy like the U.S. is, but they are there strictly for business purposes only.
“US quietly assumes military posture in Africa”
It usually starts quietly, like a tumor.
Did Q use rouge? Wouldn’t be suprised, vain as he was..
One war ends another starts.
A map of the Sahel region showing where Al Qaeda operates (AFP/Graphic)
Why U.S. military in Uganda? Soros fingerprints all over it.
The billionaire's Open Society Institute, meanwhile, runs numerous offices in Uganda. It maintains a country manager in Uganda, as well as the Open Society Initiative for East Africa, which supports work in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The Open Society Institute runs a Ugandan Youth Action Fund, which states its mission is to "identify, inspire, and support small groups of dedicated young people who can mobilize and influence large numbers of their peers to promote open society ideals."
This is also about China. They just are not talking about it. China is moving into Africa bigtime. Leasing thousands and thousands of acres of farmland to grow crops etc.
Somewhere between Uganda and Somoalia lies St. Mary’s Church...?
I suppose you can claim we're countering Chinese power in the region, but that's a stretch.
Maybe we should ask: What are the interests of the State Department and the Department of Defense in the region?
This kind of meddling strengthens DoD and DoS influence, gives them greater budgets and gives them more things to do.
And anyone who criticizes this patronage system is tarred as an isolationist.
Had I a son or daughter of the age to join the military, I would do everything possible I could to keep them from it. This country is run by a madman, and US military lives are the price. He is undoing everything that was good about our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he is doing everything that is evil when it comes to helping Muslims take control of more countries. Neither I or any of my family will have anything to do with it.
Gen. Ham, I'm much, much more worried about a full fledged, armed to the teeth, group of al-Qaida coming over our porous southern border, possibly bring an Iranian nuke with them, and wreaking havoc here in the US.
Talk about mission failure!
Correction - Obama IS a gigantic mistake
Let Obama be Obama! Obie is by far his own worst enemy. Only he can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Correction - Obama IS a gigantic mistake
Let Obama be Obama! Obie is by far his own worst enemy. Only he can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Congress is a joke.
Where is cindy sheehan? Where is Code Pink? Oh, I forgot,,,
Senate yes, the House is trying to do the right thing.
We are making Africa safe...for the Chinese.
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