Posted on 05/03/2024 4:17:18 AM PDT by hardspunned
Russian military personnel have entered an airbase in Niger that is hosting American troops, after a decision by Niger’s junta to expel US forces from the country.
The military officers ruling the west African country have told the US to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel, which until a coup last year had been a key partner for Washington’s fight against insurgents who have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.
A senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Russian forces were not mingling with US troops but were using a separate hangar at Airbase 101, which is next to Diori Hamani international airport in Niamey, Niger’s capital.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Russian troops just occupying part of what is effectively theirs now anyway. Probably to discourage any clever actions by our departing forces to destroy the usability of the base until we are gone completely.
Thanks for posting.
I will know the U.S. has been put in its rightful place when we see a headline like this out of Syria.
There used to be a Wheelus AFB near Tripoli in Libya. Ran from 1948-1970 until Ghadaffy threw them out. It was pretty much a full service air base with 15K personnel, fighters, transports and other personnel amenities. Was under MATS, fighter squadrons, had SAC components, the transferred to USAFE command.
...”...Was under MATS, fighter squadrons, had SAC components, the transferred to USAFE command....”
....we must be of the same generation....how many folks today even know there was a MATS years ago...??!! (Military Air Transport Service, which morphed into Military Airlift Command, which itself became today’s Air Mobility Command...)...
I guess not many. Born 1950. Served 1968-1976. I remember Wheelus Closing. I remember Lajes Field, Peterson Field, Ent AFB (now an Olympic training center), Lindsey Air Station and Sunnyvale AFS (now Onizuka AFB) and whole bunch of lesser status facilities we used to have. Now they’re all AFB or ARB or Joint Base, etc. When they went mainly to satellites, they got rid of the service I was in - Air Force Communications Service AFCS.
I am all for pulling out of Africa completely. Let China and Russia deal with the ferals for a few decades, at which point they will be kicked out and blamed.
We pay for and build these bases, then once they are complete the U.S. troops are kicked out and either the Russians or the Chinese are invited in to take over the facilities.
Fantastic strategy, Brandon.
To add context:
The Berlin Treaty of 1869 carved up Africa between the Dutch, France. Italians, Brits and a little Portuguese.
Remnants of early colonial presence survive, such as the “Franco-Fone” part of west Africa .
Last time Africa had rising literacy rates, dropping infant mortality, rising longevity, building university-level schools and an emerging 1st world hospitals, roads, power generation infrastructure was under colonial rule.
Note, US absence in the formation of Africa and its arbitrary national borders.
Blame the Dutch and their exploitation of central Africa. They were the worst offenders.
At the time US absence was due to the US determining there was no US vital national interest in nations/regions worth going after previously dominated nations.
America had a sort of colony in Liberia. Let the Russians and Chinese try their luck in the Dark Continent. Like the Germans did before WW I (By the way they ran things pretty well—gave Blacks some opportunities. England was shocked to find Black Africans fighting hard for Germany in the war.) Maybe Russia will do more to stop the decline into barbarism effecting the nations of Africa.
Indeed.
Yes, for those that didn’t study African history (you obviously had), Liberia post-colonial world. “Liberia” was called that because of recently freed US slaves coming home (liberated). Monrovia earned that name to honor President Monroe supporting the back to Africa movement.
Nice to read your inputs. Thanks.
We've gone from trying to free the rest of the world for tyranny of communism to setting off wars, destabilizing nations and abusing them so our political elite, defense industry and oligarchs can enrich themselves.
Ghadaffy prevented migrants from crossing Libya into Europe. Perhaps one of the reasons that Obama removed him.
Niger has asked us to leave.
—We were dragging our feet in doing so.—
This amounts to poking us in the eye.
Thanks, I kind of wondered why we were still on the ground there as they asked us to leave some time ago. I don’t believe there was any reasonable expectation that being shown the door by the new Russian-aligned regime there was going to be reversed at any minute?
I think you too were around when all this stupid nonsense ended in 1991.
It was a beautiful time. No more proxy war games, no more block alliances.... free movement of people, transparency, even cooperation between former adversaries and the Russians helping us and we them regards security threats etc.
Smarter and cooler heads were in charge back then (Reagan / Gorbachev and even in our bureaucracy).
I do not think that our leadership really thought things through when we opened that door in Ukraine October 2021 and basically re-opened that era of proxy wars and block alliances.
In a worst case scenario, long term, if Russia and China deepen and broaden their alliance, that would pose a greater threat to us than the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact in the Cold War!
Hi, yeah, I was around. I’m Vietnam era.
I still scratch my head as to why we chose to oppose the Russians in a new cold war and caused Ukraine to spiral so badly out of control.
You are correct that Sino-Russian alliance would be a big deal and bad news for us and our friends. I wish we had Subic Bay back and intact; perhaps we can finagle Cam Ranh Bay back again instead? Vietnam seems more capitalistic than us sometimes.
But today, this threat is gone and history. We try very hard to resuscitate this boogieman than hasn't existed in 33 years and is not coming back.
Russia today is extremely similar to ourselves, even though no one here would admit that. They are a nation ruled by a small group of oligarchs that have a disproportionate hold on government. They are an oil, gas and coal (energy) empire and in fact our only true global competitor.
On the world stage, there are two nations which control all the worlds oil and gas production, the US (2/3rds) and Russia (1/3rd). All of the other nations that produce oil and gas are either in our or the Russian sphere of influence, i.e. Saudi Arabia (US), Iran (Russia), Kuwait (US), Syria (Russian), Jordan (US), Libya (Russian still but contested by us), Iraq (US now, formerly Russian), Venezuela (Russian)...
We are competitors, and Russia today is a pseudo-democracy (like us), with a Constitution, a Christian and European value system, and about the same share of GDP that is free (not controlled or administered by government).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_government_spending_as_percentage_of_GDP In fact, no kidding, their share of government as part of the GDP is slightly less than us!!! Ironic.
Which brings me to this idiotic war in Ukraine. There was no reason for this BS. None!
This was us wanting to expand into the Russian sphere of influence, take control of a border state and make it part of a military alliance.
This caused a war: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-president-zelenskiy-holding-talks-with-biden-adviser-says-2021-12-09/
Would we allow Russia or China to build military bases on our border in Mexico? Possibly station nukes there, missile defense, intel outposts??? No way in hell. No major power accepts another playing on their border and in fact historically we have demonstrated that we are willing to go to war over this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
We can deny it, but an argument can be made that we flat out lied regards NATO East expansion: https://www.france24.com/en/russia/20220130-did-nato-betray-russia-by-expanding-to-the-east (an article actually explaining both sides a bit).
It was us that withdrew from the Ballistic Missile Treaty because we wanted to pursue missile defense: https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002-07/news/us-withdraws-abm-treaty-global-response-muted
We try to violate the convention controlling how many warships can be in the Black Sea routinely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Straits
We blew off Minsk (German/French brokered and agreed upon by Russia and Ukraine): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements
It was us that attacked Libya, Russian aligned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya (an organization supposedly for defense attacked, without any direct threat to themselves, an organization supposedly with the North Atlantic as their AO and members)
It was us that invaded Syria, a formal Russian ally and with a navy and air base there since 1970: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_intervention_in_the_Syrian_civil_war
It was us that tried to overthrow the government in Venezuela, Russian aligned, and got caught red handed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gideon_(2020)
It was us that invaded Iraq, Russian aligned, under false pretenses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq
If you notice, every one of these is an oil / energy producing nation.
You don't see us struggling with the Russians over who can have lordship of Ethiopia (LOL).
If you put yourself in Russia's shoes, with us encroaching into their areas, NATO expansion, the Ballistic Missile Treaty, our routine attempts at trying to violate Montreux, it becomes obvious that our pushing on them over many years, breaking of promises and formal treaties, reached a breaking point in Ukraine. IMHO, there were people involved over many years that had personal biases (personal vendetta) and were not acting entirely pragmatic and objective in our best interests: Example Victoria Nuland (Russian hating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland)
Now, there are some that believe that Ukraine is about “democracy, human rights, and sovereignty.” Arguments we pull from our @ss often when we want to justify a military intervention somewhere, but that is very unlikely. I'll spare us the details of how Ukraine has a horrible human rights record, isn't a democracy, nor truly sovereign, so these arguments don't really resonate with anyone that has a clue.
The more probable reason is that Ukraine has an economic value to us, we (the US) wield much of our influence in Europe through security policy and NATO, and our global corporations and financial institutions want to see Ukraine both in the EU and NATO as an insurance policy. We essentially took control over Ukraine in 2014 (Maiden) and our decision with NATO for Ukraine in October 2021 came on the heels of arming and training their military over many years. Our logic (speculation) was that Russia would not want to pay the price in trying to stop us through force.
That said, this war isn't really because of some Russian aggression, some expansionist and violent ideology... Rather, this war is the consequence of simply trying to “ram-rod” our interests and ignore those of someone else also impacted. IMHO, our arrogance, pushing on the Russians over many years (they have had enough of our BS) and gambling with 41 million lives caused this war.
It is an unnecessary war that was predictable in both that it would happen and how it will end regards Ukraine. What the American public didn't realize when they thought it was cool once again to go to war, was that Russia isn't some chump we can push around. They can push back, economically, politically, militarily, and they are. What the American public didn't realize is that this isn't something we just wiggle our way out of once we had enough. The consequences will by lasting and eventually even American blood will spill. But you always need to look at the bright side, at least most Americans today know to put the blue side up on the Ukrainian flag. As usual, this war has given the public a small geography lesson and maybe 1/2 the population can find the Ukraine on a globe.
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