More US troops to Somalia
CNN reports that the Pentagon is sending about 40 more US troops to train and equip the Somali National Army as well as multi-national forces supporting the war against al Shabaab forces;
In an email to CNN, Charles Chuck Prichard, a spokesperson for US Africa Command, confirmed the deployment Friday, saying that the deployment of “a few dozen troops from the 101st Airborne Division” came “at the request and in close coordination with” the government of Somalia.
“The objective of this particular train and equip mission is to improve the logistical capacity of the Somali National Army and the focus will be on teaching basic logistics operations, which will allow Somalia forces to better fight al Shabaab,” the spokesman added.
The US troops will join the small number of US special operations forces already there providing counterterrorism support to local forces battling the local al Qaeda affiliate, al Shabaab. That advisory mission has been underway for several years.
There are already about 50 special forces troops in Somalia supporting the government of newly-elected president, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, a dual US-Somali citizen in his war against al Shabaab.
Category: Terror War
Is this mission creep, or just temporary?
That will be as useful as sending our logistics folks to Liberia to help them.
A place with absolutely no established defense logistics infrastructure.
I have some experience of Africa. It strongly depends on the mission parameters.
If they’re trying to train up a modern army with close-order drill and sanitary chow halls, I agree; this is not really going to help.
If they want to increase the combat effectiveness of some tribally organised asskickers who are sick and tired of al-Shabaab doing whatever depraved things occur to them on any given day, this could be highly successful.
Never underestimate the motivation of someone who’s seen his livestock rustled, his family raped/murdered/enslaved, his fields burned and his land taken. Give him an AK-47, a few similarly motivated buddies, and teach him good infantry tactics, and point him in a direction. Then stand back.
Way back.
Good perspective, Koekepan.
I know little about Africa – never been there personally although I have friends & family members who have. From what little I do [think I] know, I believe you are correct.
So do I with Liberia
My point I guess at the rudimentary level the Somalis must be at I can’t imagine needing logistics experts.
Liberia’s ASP (ammo supply/storage point for you non Army types) consisted of a concrete pad with an rough roof, open dides and some concertina strung around it.
We have been building small compounds there for years. My Battalion sent a DET there in 2011, and it was a turn over DET, so they had a new Battalion take over. They have a Logistics line set up with Camp Lemonnier Djibouti and have some operational Airfeilds.
You also have to be willing to overlook the occasional atrocity committed by the “good guys.”
This has always been our Achilles’ heel in the past. We’ll train up a ‘counterinsurgency force’ and then when that force massacres a bunch of people, CNN reports it as “US Backed and trained militias massacre innocent civilians” and all of a sudden US leaders are backpedaling and withdrawing support and saying “we never trained them to do THAT!”
But you don’t win a street fight playing by Marquess of Queensberry rules.
(Shudder!) Last time we sent “advisors” to Somalia, things didn’t go so well. . .
Tell me about it. I spent 6 months there and have a friend who earned a Purple Heart during the Battle of Mogadishu.
If you need to teach them Basic Logistics, can they actually be called an army? How about Crew, or mob,or gang. But national army. WTF?
You are thinking in modern terms.
Read Homer’s Iliad with a warrior’s eyes, and you’ll see that “Basic Logistics” was not all that common. I know that Homer was some 3k years ago, but what was true then is still true now in many non-Western countries.