Pentagon: Uganda Deployment ‘Won’t Be Open-Ended’

Says Officials Planning for War to Last 'Several Months'

Speaking to the House Foreign Affairs Committee today, Pentagon officials insisted that the Uganda war won’t be “an open-ended commitment” and that military officials envision it lasting for “several months.

President Obama announced the invasion of northern Uganda a week and a half ago, sending 100 combat troops to the nation to fight the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) both in Uganda and in neighboring countries.

Pentagon and State Department officials refused to promise the committee that the troops would not engage in combat, despite claims to that effect previously. They insisted that the troops will be sent “into the field” and that this might mean they have to get into gunbattles to “defend themselves.”

The promise that the war won’t be open-ended came a bit earlier in this war than it did in say Afghanistan, but the “plan” for the war to last months and not years doesn’t seem to be anything resembling a commitment not to keep escalating the war in the months and years to come.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.