Boots on the ground in Somalia
Chief Tango sends us a link to a Washington Post article which reports that there have been US “boots on the ground” in Somalia since October.
A cell of U.S. military personnel has been in the Somali capital of Mogadishu to advise and coordinate operations with African troops fighting to wrest control of the country from the al-Shabab militia, an Islamist group whose leaders have professed loyalty to al-Qaeda, according to three U.S. military officials.
The previously undisclosed deployment — of fewer than two dozen troops — reverses two decades of U.S. policy that effectively prohibited military “boots on the ground” in Somalia.
While I agree that al Qaeda and all of it’s off-shoot organizations should be confronted where ever they pop up, I shudder at the thought of US troops depending on our allies for their protection, because that was what caused the “Blackhawk Down” disaster – when our troops needed armor to help extract them from a firefight, the US had no armor in the country and they had to depend on Pakistanis in the UN operations. And the Pakistanis weren’t particularly motivated to drive their armor into the fire storm. US Army armor for Somalia were sitting on the DRF pad in Fort Benning, Georgia.
But this administration has half-assed every military operation it launches. So now that the world knows US troops are in Somalia, I’m pretty sure that there are targets on their chests now.
Category: Terror War
Prayers up for those folks there now. Seems like this administration is fucking bound and determined NOT to learn from history.
Didn’t you get the memo, NHSparky? History ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. You can’t learn anything from the past any more. It’s a whole new world.
Yeah, that’s obvious BS to anyone with 3 or more working brain cells. But apparently no one drew a pretty picture explaining that it’s BS for members of the current Administration.
Jeebus. This news fits right in with this morning’s rain.
This is what happens when you elect folks to high office with no real background in anything other than socilist theory discussions at coffee shops and backroom weed smoking at frat parties.
It’s as if this administration was made up of high school Model UN students.
Emperor Lion-0 knows nothing…this is the first he’s heard of it.
@1 & 2 I thought modern history started on January 20, 2009. Everything before that was all *racist*. Since, ya know, we hadn’t elected the Glorious Leader yet, so there was no reason for America tone proud of anything ever, according to Michelle Obama. Besides, everybody who tried to kill our troops in Mogadishu in ’93 was black, so, ya know, racism and stuff. If they weren’t racist, how come they shot lots of black Somalis, but didn’t shoot any white Somalis? Clearly a racist war fought by racists because racism and evil Bush…
Huh? Whaddaya mean Clinton was in charge in 1993? But, but, but, Bush…and, and racism…The Glorious Leader knows what’s best! How dare you peasants question the infallible wisdom of the Glorious Leader! The Glorious Leader knows far more about warfare than any of you military veterans who have actually fought a war, because…he’s the Glorious Leader! The Glorious Leader knows all and can’t be wrong!
That was supposed to say “to be proud”. Fucking auto-correct.
Great! Simply f@ckin’ great! Now we find out we again have troops in a shithole, undermanned and unsupported. Please either get them out of Somalia or get them the support they WILL need NOW. Thank you President Obama and John Kerry for once again, deceiving the American people and for putting our armed forces into another bad, bad, bad, situation. If this had gone wrong before the Washington Post let it out I wonder if we would have ever known. Well, we would have from the cell phone coverage by the locals. I just wonder what the coverup would have sounded like. Now that the news is out it is time to get them out!
If I remember correctly, I think that I was in country for almost 3 weeks before the armor got there. I was with 2/22 and we went in right after the Battle of Mogadishu.
We left from Griffis Air Force Base on C-5’s and did several air to air refuelings to make it a nonstop flight.
I had guys that I went to basic training with that were actually in the battle as well, as part of the 10th Mountain relief force.
But yeah, to see this story that we have troops on the ground again, it makes me shudder.
To say that the Operation Gothic Serpent went wrong cause of depending on the Pakis is a huge cop out to all of the problems from that Operation. Separate chains of command, no QRF at all on standby, horrible Comms plans, horrendous communication between elements, horrible contingency plans. All things that have become SOPs, but weren’t at the time. They were breaking lots of new ground at the time for SOF operations. And a lot of lives have been saved from this operation down the road from learning from these mistakes.
Yep. The Kenyan Candidate, or whoever is pulling his strings, is out to “Fundamentally Transform” the Republic, just like he promised. Frittering away the lives of our military is part of the agenda to make us irrelevant militarily wrt global affairs. He is unconcerned with the lives lost and families shattered, well, because they don’t look like him.
And that is because Obama and his fellow travelers are the biggest racists this side of the Ku Klux Klan.
God have mercy on our military.
VietNam Redux.
Deja vu all over again.
Send Mr Peabody and Sherman to the early 60s in the Wayback Machine.
Who was it said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”? (or words to similar effect)
(insert your own political, low-information voter, and/or welfare entitlement joke(s) here).
Does this country not learn a gottdamn thing?
This isn’t going to end well.
@3—”It’s as if this administration was made up of high school Model UN students.”
I can’t speak for model UN students, but this speech and debater reckons he can dig up some pretty competent candidates from the team and the model UN to replace the numbnuts who make up this administration. My default to anyone who thinks that high school students aren’t mature enough for the job is to point to this administration (Selfie at a funeral? Really?)—and the Daniel Dembiniski, “Ass Toes” Fleming, Phildo, and Paul (of the ballsack) threads. Who says there aren’t high school students more mature than some adults (smile)?
Wondering: Trying to beat Snowden to the punch?
@10 Wasn’t there a turncoat douchebag in “Game of Thrones” that did more or less the same thing? Deliberately get his guys killed so there wouldn’t be many left to defend the boss he was betraying…And here’s our president doing the same thing…
Jesus, there’s a comforting thought…
One of the problems with this administration is that there are actually a couple of kids from my high school debate team serving as interns and lower-level officials. It scares me to death to know these people, much less to know they have power no matter how slight.