Africa is our new quagmire: Special ops, human rights abuses and the latest battlefront in our faile

[unhappycamper]

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/13/africa_is_our_new_quagmire_special_ops_human_rights_abuses_partner/



While Obama makes peace with Iran, U.S. forces and their trained allies are running amok in Chad, Niger and beyond

Africa is our new quagmire: Special ops, human rights abuses and the latest battlefront in our failed War on Terror
Nick Turse, TomDispatch.com
Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 01:00 PM EST

“Africa is a challenging place today and one that, if left unattended, is likely to be the birthplace of many more challenges in the future,” Army Secretary John McHugh said recently. Since 9/11, in fact, the continent has increasingly been viewed by the Pentagon as a place of problems to be remedied by military means. And year after year, as terror groups have multiplied, proxies have foundered, and allies have disappointed, the U.S. has doubled down again and again, with America’s most elite troops — U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF) — leading the way.

The public face of this engagement is a yearly training exercise called Flintlock. Since 2005, it has brought together U.S. special operators and elite European and West African troops to “strengthen security institutions, promote multilateral sharing of information, and develop interoperability among the partner nations of the Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP).”

Directed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sponsored by SOCAFRICA — the special operations contingent of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) — and conducted by Special Operations Command Forward-West Africa, the Flintlock exercises have sought to “develop the capacity of and collaboration among African security forces to protect civilian populations across the Sahel region of Africa.” This year, for instance, 1,300 troops representing 28 countries — including U.S. Army Green Berets — trained together in the host nation of Chad, as well as in Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Tunisia, conducting mock combat patrols and practicing counterterrorism missions.

~snip~

For years, AFRICOM’s answer to this increasing instability has been more:more money, more troops, more engagement. Back in 2010, 14 countries took part in the Flintlock exercise. By this year, the number had doubled. RAND’s Linda Robinson is also of the more-is-better school of thought, though in a highly nuanced fashion. “There were a lot of episodic JCETs over the years,” she said in regard to the Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership nations. While stressing that she had not conducted a “deep dive” study of the region, she drew attention to deficiencies plaguing the program. “You have to have a different model. You can’t just string together a bunch of JCETs and an annual exercise, in this case Flintlock. That is not enough to make it work. That doesn’t constitute a successful model,” she said, advocating for a more persistent, though less widespread, U.S. special ops presence in the region.

[Fred Sanders]

1. Having not created enough regime change refugees in the ME, America now looks to Africa for it's

next great justification to keep it's bloated military.

[unhappycamper]

3. AFRICOM was created in 2006 in GERMANY.

Rare earth minerals, oil, diamonds and other shiny baubles were the most likely reasons for this new command.

Did you know that each F-35 contains over 1,000 pounds of rare earth minerals?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. I've got a different suggestion.

More money, more engagement, fewer troops.

Don't fight in places that are in trouble. Strengthen the countries that aren't. Build roads, hospitals, solar farms, water systems, other infrastructure. People want to live in stable, healthy, happy places. Help them build up their people.