Somalia - Americas other endless war

**Pauls' Revere** · 01-20-2019, 10:26 PM

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america...ia-11547738433

Somalia is one in a series of American wars unleashed by the Sept. 11 attacks, from Afghanistan and Syria to Niger and Yemen. On any given day, across a swath of Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, hundreds of U.S. troops might find themselves dropping bombs on or exchanging gunfire with any number of armed Islamist organizations—al-Shabaab, Islamic State, the Taliban, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda’s branches in the Maghreb or the Arabian Peninsula.

It was al-Shabaab’s rise from Somalia’s anarchy that brought the U.S. back to the country in force. President George W. Bush began basing small numbers of U.S. troops in Somalia in 2007. President Barack Obama’s administration conducted air raids against al-Shabaab leaders.

President Trump recently ordered a withdrawal from Syria and a sharp drawdown in Afghanistan. At the same time, he has declared parts of Somalia “areas of active hostility” and authorized an escalation of offensive operations against al-Shabaab. The Pentagon doubled to 500 the size of the U.S. force on the ground.

U.S. airstrikes against al-Shabaab positions and fighters have tripled since 2016, to 47 last year, according to U.S. Africa Command. The military says it killed 338 al-Shabaab fighters in 2018.

The Pentagon says it remains committed to Somalia. In the first eight days of this year, the military reported conducting five airstrikes and killing 26 militants. So far, the Trump administration plans only minimal troop reductions in Somalia, according to U.S. military officials.

Somalia is crisscrossed with fault lines. Rival clans vie for power and resources and the fragile central government has trouble even securing the national capital.

Exploiting those divisions is al-Shabaab, which blossomed in reaction to the 2006 invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia, a majority-Christian nation. In 2008, the U.S. listed al-Shabaab as a terrorist group. At its peak, al-Shabaab controlled Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and effectively served as the nation’s government.

An African Union peacekeeping force ousted the group from Mogadishu in 2011 and from the southern port of Kismayo the following year. Some 20,000 troops and police from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and other African countries remain.

Al-Shabaab has sought revenge against the peacekeepers, turning to guerrilla and terror tactics as it lost ground. This week’s hotel attack in Kenya bore similarities to the 2013 al-Shabaab assault on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, which left 67 dead, and the 2015 massacre of 147 students and others at Kenya’s Garissa University College. In 2017, the group was allegedly behind a truck bombing that left nearly 600 people dead in Mogadishu.

**RonZeplin** · 01-20-2019, 10:43 PM

Those 500 troops are doing a heck of a job keeping the Somali Pirates from taking over the US Navy.

**Swordsmyth** · 01-31-2019, 03:32 AM

The U.S. military plans to scale back its role in Somalia and curtail airstrikes against al-Shabab insurgents after having taken out many of the group's senior operatives, two senior U.S. officials told NBC News, the latest signal the Trump administration is looking to cut the number of troops deployed around the world.The move reflects an assessment by the administration that while the Shabab insurgency remains a threat to the Somali government and neighboring countries, it does not pose a direct danger to the U.S., current and former officials said. And it follows President Donald Trump's abrupt announcement last month that he had ordered U.S. forces out of Syria and asked for plans to be drawn up for a possible drawdown in Afghanistan.

Under the plan, responsibility for bombing militants in Somalia would be shifted to the CIA, officials said.
That would likely mean pulling out some U.S. special operation forces that help pilots pinpoint targets, including for offensives carried out by African Union-led troops. The Pentagon has about 500 personnel in Somalia, including troops, civilians and contractors, according to U.S. Africa Command.
It remained unclear how many U.S. forces would remain on the ground under the planned shift.
The CIA, unlike the U.S. military, is not equipped to deploy hundreds of personnel on the ground to direct air strikes, and would almost certainly carry out fewer bombing raids. The agency could target gatherings of Shabab militants but would not be well-positioned to provide air power for a ground offensive by Somali government fighters or African Union troops, former officials said.

U.S. officials suggested that while Shabab militants stage attacks in Somalia and against neighboring countries, they did not pose an imminent national security threat to the U.S.
"Not every nasty character out there is a threat to the U.S.," said the official, who added that it was time that Somalia's government takes the lead in the fight.
"Do we want to do the Somali government's job for it?"

More at: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...ts-cut-n954836