Posted on Feb 19, 2020
Somalia: Al-Shabab fighters attack military bases
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Somalia
Terrorism
Posted 5 y ago
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Somalia military bases. If, and when, we clean up other venues, this would be the next target.
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Africa has been stewing for a long long time. As bin Laden's 9/11 legacy lingers al-Q has manage to stay relevant despite our efforts in A'stan. Sure we had some "big wins" with Seal Team six taking out OBL but the fact remains Al-Shabab swore allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012 a full year after bin Laden was killed
While the war has been going on in A'stan bin Laden's "base" has been not so quietly carrying on in other parts of the world building local alliances, fostering networks of affiliates or "branches" in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. So to see them cowboy up doesn't surprise me.
We have been working with others in the region to disrupt these efforts and networks - however our approach in swatting flies has resulted in an ever growing pile of garbage. While I get the politics in why a low profile approach was desired the truth is we needed to take out the trash a long time ago. Seems our public content with our efforts has allowed our politicos to flounder on any serious efforts to clean up Africa. Africa having a rather low strategic importance hasn't helped either however at some point Africa is going to require a more protracted effort. Russian and China are working towards projecting force from Africa.
Just hope we don't go down the same path as we did in the Middle East if and when we do decide to take the trash out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_People%27s_Liberation_Army_Support_Base_in_Djibouti
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/25/central-african-republic-russia-military-base
While the war has been going on in A'stan bin Laden's "base" has been not so quietly carrying on in other parts of the world building local alliances, fostering networks of affiliates or "branches" in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. So to see them cowboy up doesn't surprise me.
We have been working with others in the region to disrupt these efforts and networks - however our approach in swatting flies has resulted in an ever growing pile of garbage. While I get the politics in why a low profile approach was desired the truth is we needed to take out the trash a long time ago. Seems our public content with our efforts has allowed our politicos to flounder on any serious efforts to clean up Africa. Africa having a rather low strategic importance hasn't helped either however at some point Africa is going to require a more protracted effort. Russian and China are working towards projecting force from Africa.
Just hope we don't go down the same path as we did in the Middle East if and when we do decide to take the trash out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_People%27s_Liberation_Army_Support_Base_in_Djibouti
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/25/central-african-republic-russia-military-base
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MAJ Matthew Arnold
Wise words. As far back as 2008, I helped train battalions from African countries to go fight in Somalia. Nothing has changed. Uncompromising, Radical Islam is the problem (but you already know that). Nothing will change until radical Islam is wiped out.
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