Tuesday, March 18, 2014

U.S. Military Forces Return To Somalia

Members of al Shabaab, al Qaeda-linked insurgents, ride in a pick-up truck after distributing relief to famine-stricken internally displaced people at Ala Yaasir camp, outside Somalia's capital Mogadishu, September 3, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Feisal Omar

The U.S. Military Is Back In Somalia, Sort Of -- Joe Trevithick, War is Boring

Advisers and commandos touched down in 2013

In October 1993, 18 American troops died during a brutal, two-day firefight with militiamen in Mogadishu—a shocking defeat that hastened the end of a painful, expensive U.S.-led peace operation in Somalia.

Twenty years later, Americans returned to Somalia—under very different circumstances. Last October, the Pentagon sent a small number of advisers to Somalia and launched a rare commando raid in the troubled country, where a fledgling U.S.-backed government is battling the militant Al Shabab group.

To be clear, the October deployments are not the first U.S. military actions in Somalia since the mid-’90s peacekeeping—the CIA, Special Operations Forces and drones have all quietly intervened over the years. But the recent American missions do represent an important step toward a greater Pentagon presence in Somalia.

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My Comment: This deployment reminds me of an old saying .... if you make a mistake, you are a philosopher .... if you make the same mistake again, you are an idiot.

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