US officials describing the military operation in Niger, which only became public knowledge earlier this month after four US special forces were killed in an ambush, have not only revealed that nearly 1,000 US troops are on the ground in Niger, a massive force for the tiny country, but that this is the “hub” for US military operations in Western Africa.
Details on what exactly that means are scant, since the Niger military operation was basically a secret, and by extension so are all the other regional operations that we’re not being told about. Officials did assure reporters Niger has the most troops in the region.
Niger has hosted a US drone base for years, and about 100 troops were reported deployed in 2012. Somewhere between then and now, this increased ten-fold, and those troops started engaging in patrols. African Command says there are no armed US warplanes in West Africa at present, but that they rely on French warplanes.
Though historically where US troops are deployed and how many are supposed to be a matter of public record, there are tens of thousands of US troops listed as deployed overseas but in unspecified areas, doing unspecified things.
If Trump has any wisdom at all he’s pull a Reagan in Lebanon and kabosh AFRCOM right now before this sticks to him like PR napalm.
The Tongo Tongo ambush is already being attributed to the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara. IS-anywhere may as well be a code word for CIA proxy force. Neocons embedded in the CIA would be among Trumps greatest enemies in the Deep State.
Those American Green Berets will be eager to avenge their fallen comrades and honour of their unit, but there’s a hidden price for following the Iraq-Aghan escalation formula.
Sad fact is no-one really cares about Arabs and Persians except a few antiwar idealists. Collaterally slaughtering them is no where near the big deal it should be popularly, since to the Judeo-Christian majority, the haji terrorist sons of Cain have it coming for the glory of the Second Coming.
American Special Forces inevitably riding the escalation train, collaterally slaughtering Nigeriens a-la-haji, is potentially a lot different.
Predominantly white SF soldiers going Ferguson on black Africans in a police action in Africa would be a tough sell even for Obama. Notably, AFRICOM remained relatively kinetic-free under his administration.
Hot AFRICOM is a public relations non-starter for Trump, because everyone “knows” he’s a frothing racist even though he’s not. Pow, the neocons get Trump, chaos in Africa where there was none, and haze their rivals in the Pentagon.
Why do we only find out about our occupations of other countries when dead soldiers come home in caskets?
Shouldn’t it matter if the operation is welcomed, or if it is righteous? There is no comparison between Benghazi and Niger. In Benghazi, arms were supplied to terrorists in order to overthrow Ghadafi. In Niger, President Issoufou welcomes the French and American forces to help stabilize his vast rural areas which are sparsely populated against terrorists, who want to establish bases of operation – that would harm the citizens of Niger. There is no comparison, and it is not a war.
Wrong. These are military operations. You think 1,000 US troops are there to write up parking tickets?
Niger is in turmoil as part of the collateral damage from destroying the Libyan government… a gift that keeps on giving from Bush- Clinton- Obama…
All reminiscent of the Indo-China clandestine wars in Laos and Cambodia that were touched off by the US invasion of Vietnam… typical US operations.
I’m thinking that those troops will be facing the same CIA/Mossad provided firepower that those in Syria are facing from ISIS. Play both sides against the middle, it’s the American Way.
Not exactly, not for the Deep State. Whatever the factional rivalries, differences are supposed to be kept sporting and not interfere with imperial business. There is supposed to be a level of trust.
Trust is a weapon; neocons are powerful because they are the most cohesive faction, not the largest or strongest but because they are best able to exploit inter-communal rivalries. Nothing is sacred to neocons but they themselves.
Raimondo described neocon domestic doctrine as ‘rule or ruin’ in an incisive, insightful essay on neocon psycho psychology. (“Ewan McMullen: Raising the neocon flag” Antiwar.com, Aug. 15, 2016).
Neocons are possibly more accurately rule and ruin, if the Democratic party is anything to go by. Nonetheless, what won’t neocons do to win, to avenge a loss, and especially, recover from one? The Imperial Court backed by hick peasants rejected them; jealous psycho ex rules now apply. No appeasement, no reconciliation, no quarter on this humiliation.
When CIA and Pentagon proxies fought in Syria, Imperial operatives were never killed. In Niger, IS for the Greater Sahara killed Pentagon SF, but like Syria, IS are almost certainly CIA proxies. It may be a first, and, anti-Trumpists were quick to scream Trump Benghazi.
Its a neocon move to sacrifice operatives for domestic political stakes, whether its was Cheney outing Plame or Hilary at Benghazi.
“Neocons are possibly more accurately rule and ruin.”
I’m thinking that the Neocons rule by ruin, by chaos, by destruction, by untruth. It’s so profitable for the MIC and the banksters. Are they even human anymore?
The AI algorithm is accurate; a malware more sophisticated than a virus. With limited capacity to think, psychopaths need reliable patterns of default behavior to focus that capacity.
It may also be a preference; they find it more enjoyable and scientifically, its been demonstrated that the pleasure centres of the brain in some people are excited by cruelty.
Raimondo traced the neocon trail of destruction through various political entities; the only reason they didn’t eat the heart out of the GOP is because the GOP doesn’t have such a thing. The Dems are crashed; but the plan was to jump to the oval office and not have to worry about the implosion of tweedle-dee, tweedle-dum politics.
Its not even about profit; its the journey that matters, not the destination. Pentagon war dogs are easily lured because their fragmented logic sometimes ends at short term profit and power. The neocons are all about the fragmenting, and the end is survival and reproduction; power is necessary but subordinate to that.
Survival and reproduction is what its all about, biologically; having some understanding of that allows the neocons to play the long game better than most. They induce others to think its all about more transitory achievements.
American arch nationalist imperialists, on the other hand, don’t discount survival and reproduction; they win for a greater purpose than the prize of the moment, which is why they and non-imperialist patriots can compete with the neocons.
“The AI algorithm is accurate; a malware more sophisticated than a virus.
With limited capacity to think, psychopaths need reliable patterns of
default behavior to focus that capacity.”
The AI future is one without humans. Such useless eaters we are.
… Interestingly enough that idea was popularly explored in the new (now old) Battlestar Galactica (2004) re-imagining.
Its hard to imagine the humans now in charge of the AI future won’t choose, consciously or not, attempt to validate their prejudices and vices through an AI routine. Then give the bots guns…
Microsoft’s Tay chatbot being a perfect example of programed moral relativity with no self-correction routine for logic fragmentation as is fashionable now in Silicon Valley.
Niger is a former French colony, and the French are still spread around various other similar States. Cooperation? Why? Let Africa alone- you in the “West” destroyed Libya, where the only real pan-African progress was being made before the murder of Gaddafi and the ruin of his country with the highest standard of living in Africa.
Niger is a typical clandestine US war… only now is Congress investigating. Niger is just another Clinton-Obama gift to the world, an offshoot of aligning with jihadis to bring down the Ghaddifi regime on behalf of “human rights”
Not exactly; U.S. troops weren’t as hands-on as they are now.
Early AFRICOM and its predecessor arrangements were soft power compared to today’s apparently more overt actions. The only comparable scenario to Tongo Tongo was Blackhawk Down, which prompted Bill Clinton put an end to ambitious African ops. As far as Presidents go, Bill Clinton wasn’t that bad; it was HilaryHawk who wanted wars to pay off her burgeoning neocon relationships.
According to Vice.com “The War You Never Heard Of” (Nick Turse May 18, 2017) Africa’s share of U.S. SF activities were from 1%-3% from 2006 to 2010 but jumped to 16% in 2016. If Trump doesn’t curb this trend, African wars will be his legacy and possibly a pretext for the removal of his administration.
Antiwar sentiment can’t be tapped against Trump because the Syria-Iraq wars are backed by Israel and Saudi Arabia; all the straw-progressives have are make believe Russian scandals
Africa, on the other hand, has no comparable sponsors who would be long offended by antiwar sentiment. Middle East warmongers would welcome attention drawn away from their projects, especially if they could take down Trump in the process. France, hardly matters.
I agree. Africa is next in line for mass-murder the way SE Asia was a generation ago, followed by Central America and then the whole ME… whereas the Putin Doctrine is operational in most of Eurasia, Africa enjoys no such alliances.
Central America was always in line for mass murder; sort of a practice field for the U.S..
Both China and Russia (and Cuba) were active in Africa during the Cold War, supporting African independence regimes with arms, advisors, military training, aid, education and so forth. Sometimes they were competing more than cooperating. Overall they were very influential.
Russia continues to maintain and expand its soft-power ties with Africa, and while nowhere near Cold War levels, ties exist between Russia and some African nations. There are alarmist news reports of Russia’s quiet rise in Africa but a Syrian intervention couldn’t be repeated anywhere in Africa. The Putin doctrine is near-defense-only ’cause we’re broke.
Smashing Africa sans Trump would be neocon Chaos Doctrine, not well thought-out geopolitical strategy. With Trump, smashing Africa might be a means to get Trump out of the Oval Office and the Pentagon out of the driver’s seat, but still not well thought out geopolitical strategy .
The Deep State elites work on a level of trust when it comes to Imperial business, but neocons are different. Not the strongest or largest, but powerful because they are the most cohesive, willing to exploit inter-communal rivalries, poison wells beyond recovery.
Raimondo described neocon domestic doctrine as ‘rule or ruin’ (“Ewan McMullen: Raising the neocon flag” Antiwar.com, Aug. 15, 2016). What won’t they do to win or avenge a loss?
When CIA and Pentagon proxies fought in Syria, Imperial operatives were never killed. In Niger, likely CIA proxies killed Pentagon SF. Maybe an accident, maybe not, but its seems to be a first and and anti-Trumpists were quick to scream Trump Benghazi.
Project Censored has been covering America’s slow motion invasion of the African continent since at least the Bush years. It’s all a big tug of war with China over who will get to suck the continent dry of it’s precious natural resources. The primary difference being that China offers to do business with countries without telling them how to run their governments. America prefers the tried and true neo-colonial method that still leaves a bad taste in Beijing’s mouth because they’ve still got scars from the same whip.
I’d go with China.
China may have lost the first round of struggles with the Western powers in part because important trading partners ceased to be independent, and collapsed or otherwise remade to serve Western imperialism.
It will be interesting to see how the U.S. handles China-friendly governments. AFRICOM was a soft power operation even before it was AFRICOM, possibly because of the inconvenience of collapsed local regimes to Western interests.
However, Niger’s government is into its seventh Republic, and Chinese businesses in Niger were more or less unaffected by the 2010 coup and transition. Hard power overthrows into chaos like Libya are more effective at removing Chinese trade, at cost of taking the entire country out of the loop.
Various sources indicate as of 2015 Niger’s largest trade partners were China (22.5%), U.S. (9.6%) and India (7.7%).