The Trump administration is divided over how to handle recent battlefield gains in Somalia by al-Shabaab, which has been making advances and is threatening the US-backed government’s hold on Mogadishu, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
The report said that State Department officials have proposed closing down the US embassy in Mogadishu and evacuating most US personnel to avoid a rushed withdrawal if al-Shabaab does end up taking the city.
Other administration officials are pushing for an escalation, including Sebastian Gorka, a media personality who currently serves as senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council.
The Times report said that during an inter-agency meeting, Gorka argued that al-Shabaab taking over Mogadishu would be intolerable and suggested stepping up airstrikes against them, which would mark an escalation of a policy that’s failed to achieve any progress.
No final decision was made at the meeting, and the administration is still divided over what to do next. Many want to avoid a situation similar to the Afghanistan withdrawal, which involved a rushed evacuation of diplomatic personnel. According to US Africa Command, there are about 500 to 600 US troops in Somalia.
Through multiple US administrations, the US has propped up the federal government, which controls little territory inside Somalia’s internationally recognized borders and appears to be weaker than ever. Somaliland in the northwest has acted as a de facto independent state for decades, and last year, the northeastern Puntland region withdrew from the federal system, and the southern Jubaland state ended its cooperation with the federal government following a dispute over elections.
According to the Times, there have been reports of federal government troops not being willing to stand and fight against al-Shabaab. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is also said to have alienated rival clans and some of his own supporters.
President Trump dramatically ramped up airstrikes in Somalia during his first term, and since returning to office, he has launched strikes against al-Shabaab and Somalia’s ISIS affiliate, which is based in the Puntland region.
Hawks who favor continued intervention in Somalia portray al-Shabaab as a major threat to the US due to its size and al-Qaeda affiliation, but it’s widely believed the group does not have ambitions outside of Somalia.
Al-Shabaab was born out of a US-backed Ethiopian invasion in 2006 that toppled the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of Muslim groups who briefly held power in Mogadishu after ousting CIA-backed warlords.
Al-Shabaab was the radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union. The group’s first recorded attack was in 2007, and it wasn’t until 2012 that al-Shabaab pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda after years of fighting the US and its proxies.
It's not exactly news when Sebastian Gorka wants to escalate violence. I mean, that's kinda his thing.
Sebastian Gorka had an arrest warrant for “firearm or ammunition abuse” during the time he served as Trump's “deputy assistant”. Gorka's wife Katharine also served as a senior policy adviser in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration.
Gorka has a longstanding and well-documented interest in guns. He told Recoil magazine that his “everyday carry” includes two pistols, a knife, a tourniquet – and for good measure – a copy of the US constitution. In February 2016, he had a pistol confiscated after attempting to bring it through Washington’s Reagan national airport.
A group with historical links to Nazi Germany told NBC News it was "proud" that Gorka wore the honorary medal of the Hungarian nationalist organization Vitezi Rend at Trump's Inaugural Ball.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ab94c8a953f11c9818b490a7eb0f866e57c06352dd8162047c7fe8a6ebb0abd.jpg
2A was meant for "well regulated militias". Not for every Tom, Dick and Harry or pimple d*ck like Gorka.
Even if it was the USA which created this civil war with the ousting of Barre in 1991, since then Somalia has been archetypal "libertarian capitalist" chaos (failed state) and what the extremists of Al Shabab offer is a return to order, I guess, Sharia Law order but order nevertheless.
I presume that the recent pullout of Ethiopian peacekeepers (after Ethiopia recognized Somaliland in exchange for a port facility) and their effective replacement by Turkish troops is fueling an end result similar to those in Afghanistan and Syria. Everywhere where Erdogan gets involved seems to end similarly: Islamic Fascism.
I doubt the USA will do anything but token action to remedy that: the complicity with Turkish "neo-Ottomanism" (spread of Islamist Fascism, usually by brutal terrorist organizations) is too deeply rooted in the regional policies of Uncle Sam.
Unfortunately, the UN was able to force a state back onto Somalia nearly 20 years ago, ending its run as Africa’s fastest-growing economy and freest territory.
Trump’s a Fascist!….
Not exactly. he is anything that gives him more power and money. At the time that maybe Fascism, but he can change on a dime if some other "ism" gives him more bragging rights.
If the "dime" turns into a "ten spot", he will change.
Trumpism.
In his head he already has all the bragging rights and more.
"Al-Shabaab was born out of a US-backed Ethiopian invasion in 2006 that toppled the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of Muslim groups who briefly held power in Mogadishu after ousting CIA-backed warlords.
Al-Shabaab was the radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union. The group’s first recorded attack was in 2007, and it wasn’t until 2012 that al-Shabaab pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda after years of fighting the US and its proxies."
I don't think these sentences are fair to Al-Shabaab. They have behaved savagely, yet tried to bring stability to Somalia and have governed their areas. They and the Islamic Courts Union were born of enthusiasm brought from Afghanistan. They are perhaps an Islamic response to the post-civil war chaos.
Gorka:
https://images.forwardcdn.com/image/970x/center/images/cropped/young-gorka-photo-from-tpm-via-facebook-1489616718.jpg
Sebastian Gorka’s Ties To Nazi-Allied Group Stretch Back Decades
https://forward.com/news/369683/exclusive-sebastian-gorkas-ties-to-nazi-allied-group-stretch-back-decades/
What are we still doing in Somalia? Killing more people?
Gorka. Kind of rhymes with Dorka………..
That is the company they keep in Washington? All things considered, it is a criminal syndicate, fraud, sex crimes, sleazy, war criminals, and vindictive people. The president is a felon and they worship him. And the lowest of them all, Netanyahu gets standing ovations in congress, nothing but scum.
Hollywood loves sequels and is desperate for content. 'Black Hawk Down 2' ?
Does Trump remember his first term when he ordered US troops out of Somalia because the effort was bloody and pointless?
Note that Somalia was on General Clark's Zionist hit list as one of seven nations the USA must destroy and control.
Weren't those the troops Trump sent in? I know he bombed Somalia more than Bush and Obama combined.
Didn't Somalia achieve "Fifth World" status at one point ? Like, literally two definitional ranks below Third World, it got so dysfunctional ?
The term might have been "banana republic"?
That too ! Except without bananas.
or a republic.
Admittedly I’ve never been sure the difference between a “democracy” and a “republic”, especially after hearing enough Americans insist their country is a republic and not a democracy. Despite me suffering midterm and fullterm election ads on US television stations every two years of my whole life.
“Wow, whoever Patty Murray is, some people really do or really don’t like her !”
Please, the USA is a Banana Republic, they are one or two steps above Somalia.
“Third World” wasn’t a “ranking.” It was a Cold War term for countries allied with neither the US nor the USSR.
There’d be some Reaganist Cold Warriors who’d disagree – that you’re either in First (World) Place, or you’re #1, #2, #3 Loser.
That said, “First- / Third-World” as an expression endures. With “Second-World” lost to obscurity like the 3rd Amendment.
With, I seem to recall, Fourth- and Fifth-World coined in the late ’90s or 00’s to label countries in even WORSE shape than the typical Third-World members (which came to mean poor countries)
The USA was # 1 and Russia # 2, now the ranking is China/Russia #1 and USA/NATO #2?
Just joking.
Why in the world does the US have this demonic need to exert control and wreak devastation over the poorest, most benighted, depressed and hopeless parts of the world??? Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Haiti, Gaza, it's endless and pathetic. The ONLY thing US intervention since 1945 has done, anywhere, is make arms manufacturers (and their shills in congress, the military, and the media) rich and create refugees; who we then despise, even though we created them.
The Americans always attack the little guys, they only bomb the civilians women and children included and use proxies to fight for them. NATO served American interests only, and Biden even attacked Germany a NATO MEMBER, when he blew up the pipeline. But it has always been a lucrative business, they sell the weapons with which their proxies kill each other. They did the same in both WW. The Arabs used American made bombs and planes to bomb Yemen. Trump the con man is the best salesman the MIC has. Not to forget, Trump is very vicious creature. There is really nothing nice to say about him.
Actually, the seat of the American government is the Wall Street, more powerful than then the WH, they arrange the funding, like Lend Lease, see Ukraine, Trump wants to be paid and BlackRock is "investing", the vultures are busy.
Of course, it's much easier to play Wack-a-mole with aboriginal tribal people who can't defend themselves than to conduct military operations against industrial nuclear armed first world countries.
The American military is designed for counter insurgency operations and not industrial land wars on the level of Ukraine.
As for Sebastian Gorka: He is the ultimate Russophobe who would fully push to war with Russia.