Where's the Wild Geese when you need them?
Posted on 03/29/2013 11:03:35 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
South African soldiers have gathered in Uganda for a “new mission” to the Central African Republic (CAR), where 13 of their comrades were killed in a rebel coup at the weekend, South African media and a senior Ugandan officer have said.
“The intention of the South Africans is to reorganise themselves and then redeploy massively in CAR and topple these rebels. They were humiliated and they want to avenge,” the officer said.
The deaths were Pretoria’s heaviest military defeat since the end of apartheid in 1994 and president Jacob Zuma has drawn fierce criticism for reinforcing 26 military trainers in the capital, Bangui, after an initial rebel advance in December.
The officer said 200 South African soldiers had assembled at Entebbe air base near Kampala in Uganda with plans to hit back against the Seleka rebel coalition that toppled president François Bozize in the mineral-rich former French colony.
(Excerpt) Read more at scotsman.com ...
SA troops probably too spoiled and unmotivated vs CFA troops
SA black troops whine about years of apartheid where they had to use black-only bathrooms.....while CFA troops probably never seen a bathroom. SA doesn’t know what hardship really is
Rebels been rebels since I don’t know when.
You have a point there. haha
What is South Africa going to do? Turn CAR into a puppet state? The president is gone. It’s over. Let’s see if the rebels can turn the country around.
Oh, and I never saw South Africa going into Libya to put down the uprising there. They need to mind their own business, and stop pretending they’re some sort of world power. They’re not. They never will be.
I think CFA troops are laughing their arises off hearing more SA troops are on their way. SA don’t realize this is much more serious than carjacking a white Afrikaaner who got lost in Soweto
I’m surprised AQ hasn’t moved it’s operations into one of these sub-Saharan hell holes. You think it would be quite easy to fund their operations with blood diamond money.
France has sent over 500 men into the country to protect their citizens. Uganda has 2,500 soldiers in the east of CAR looking for the Lord's Resistance Army with the help of 100 United States “advisers.” The place is a hot mess and the new government (term used loosely) is shaky at best.
Against the Seleka rebels of CAR?
No contest.
The South African military is also know for excessive violence. Some of the things they did in the Rhodesia bush wars and the Border Wars were not UN friendly to put it mildly. Also, Apartheid didn't apply to the military during active missions. It was the one area in apartheid South Africa where such silliness did not apply - couldn't apply. Stupid politics tend to die away when a team is facing fire (I have a couple of stories from S.A. military serving then on that). Finally, the troops being sent to CAR are the S.A. special forces equivalents. If a simple S.A. guard can manhandle Putin's special service people, and prevent them from entering a building with the Russian nuclear codes (the Ruskie equivalent of the 'football') two days ago during the BRICS conference, I find it ridiculous to assume a couple hundred S.A. special forces will be incapable of whooping ass on poorly trained and poorly armed Seleka rebels (who only accessed the capital of Bangui when the one armed helicopter keeping them at bay ran out of ammo/fuel).
As for softness and the need for toilets, I am sure the Taliban although thought themselves tough compared to US forces since they could take more hardship. Didn't work too well for the Taliban since proper training and superior equipment trump the ability to share a shithole with a camel.
They are. Look at Mali, Burkina Faso and the countries to the immediate south along the coast. All very poor and very unstable but with immense natural resources.
Central African Republic is only 15% Muslim. There isn't a big enough base population for AQ to set up safely.
Where's the Wild Geese when you need them?
I agree that the South African army is more than a match for the rebels, but I question the motive. CAR is a way away from South Africa, and its not as if the leader who was just ousted was some kind of legitimate president.
For a while there, a few years back, the French Foreign Legion maintained a base at Bangui when they were engaged in Chad, assisting the Chadian forces in the fight against Qadafi. And I have some first-hand knowledge re apartheid in SADF operations, at least along the Caprivi Strip. When it reared its ugly head, it was swiftly put down by white SADF officers, usually Anglos as opposed to Boers.
My favorite war flick of all time, being an old Africa sweat.
SA needs a Black Napoleon-—a wise and competent ruler—a Zulu tribesman with an Oxford Education—I think. End the race hate in SA, link with whites, take over all of southern Africa as a new Black Empire.
South African critics question government over 13 soldiers killed in Central African Republic
Thanks Pan_Yan.
By the way during the apartheid days the military was still largely black, and as I mentioned there was little apartheid in the ranks during the periods when fighting was occurring (during more peaceful times that was different). There are records of white officers openly refusing regulations that prohibited wounded white soldiers and black soldiers from being airlifted on the same plane. Actually a lot of the friction was primarily between Afrikaners and English (dutch white south Africans and British white south Africans).
Anyways - no argument from me that the military is not as big or well funded as it was thirty years ago (it is better equipped however, but that's a different thing). My argument on my post was that it's infantile for some to assume that the S.A. forces will be routed by the Seleka rebels. Not happening. This is a revenge mission, and the South Africans could send the bloody Soweto police and even they would be sufficient against the CAR rebels.
No argument there.
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