A Burkinabe police officer with the Special Intervention Unit fires his AK-47 rifle during a simulated terrorist attack as part of exercise Flintlock 2019 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Feb. 27, 2019.
VOA: ‘We Are Not Winning’ Counterterror War in Sahel, US Military Leader in Africa Says
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO — The United States and its allies are not winning the counterterrorism war for the Sahel, the head of U.S. special operations forces in Africa told VOA Thursday.
“I would tell you at this time, we are not winning,” U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Marcus Hicks, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, said Thursday on the sidelines of Flintlock, a major U.S.-led military exercise in the region. The exercise involves about 2,000 commandoes from more than 30 African and Western countries.
The host of this year’s exercise, Burkina Faso, is battling an insurgency from several al-Qaida-linked groups, particularly in the past several months.
Read more ....
Update: Top U.S. Gen. Warns: ‘We Are Not Winning’ Anti-Jihad War in Africa’s Sahel Region (Breitbart)
WNU Editor: I do not see any U.S. political or public will to get involved in Africa's insurgencies.
What I find puzzling is why we almost exclusively (from a budget perspective) fight terrorism through surveillance and bombardment.. despite knowing it's not working to combat the underlying issue.. the ideology and root causes. We cannot be that stupid? So, apparently we want to keep these wars going? But why? For weapons testing? That won't help us against China/Russia. For land? We haven't grabbed any land. For resources? We haven't grabbed any resources. Why??
ReplyDeleteSimple, we want to leverage local forces to be the boots on the ground. US does not want to see dead soldiers returning to US. As far as the resources, never going to happen - this opens a can of "legal" worms and distracts from what we are trying to do; Control the situation thus it does not turn out like an Afghanistan. Post 911 logic.
Delete1) "We haven't grabbed any land. "
ReplyDelete2) "We haven't grabbed any resources."
But certain liberals keep accusing us of #2. They would accuse us of #1, but realize not even AOC voters are that dumb.
If most wars are going to be hybrid wars, then weapons testing is not as important. There is a limit to what materials can do anyway.
I often hear these Sahel disputes as being agriculturalists versus pastoralists. Unlike when it comes to America never heard the Left go against the agriculturalists in Africa for some odd reason. Then I think they have not read the book Shane either. If they did, they wouldn't care.