{"id":76016,"date":"2017-11-17T09:13:33","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T14:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=76016"},"modified":"2017-11-17T09:13:33","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T14:13:33","slug":"500-us-troops-in-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=76016","title":{"rendered":"500 US troops in Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stars & Stripes<\/a> reports that there are 500 US troops in Somalia – nearly an entire light infantry battalion – but the Pentagon refuses to acknowledge that there’s an escalation to the build-up;<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not associate that with a buildup, as you\u2019re calling it,\u201d Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie told reporters Thursday in Washington. \u201cI think it\u2019s just the flow of forces in and out as different organizations come in that might be sized a little differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenzie said the boost in attacks was simply a matter of hitting targets as they emerge. \u201cSo there\u2019s no particular rhythm to it, except that as they become available and as we\u2019re able to process them and vet them, we strike them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, the sudden surge of servicemembers into Somalia over the past several months and the rapid spike in airstrikes \u2014 28 so far this year \u2014 is a reversal from the past, when there were no regular troops in the country and airstrikes were extremely rare.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

S&S also reminds us that the pan-African forces there are planning on reducing their presence by about 20,000 personnel.<\/p>\n

For 10 years, the African Union Mission in Somalia helped ensure relative stability in the war-torn country, pushing al-Shabab out of the capital of Mogadishu and numerous other strongholds. But al-Shabad were never defeated, and with the African Union\u2019s pullout out set to begin in coming weeks, the U.S. and its partners have little time to degrade the militants before the multinational fighting force leaves. When the union\u2019s drawdown will be completed in 2020, Somalia\u2019s fledgling army will be in charge of the fight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While I agree that the US needs to be able to confront the Al-Qaeda militants, I’d hate to see 20,000 US troops in Somalia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stars & Stripes reports that there are 500 US troops in Somalia – nearly an entire … 500 US troops in Somalia<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}