A senior U.S. defensive official has confirmed on Monday that President Joe Biden has authorized the deployment of hundreds of special operations troops inside the country of Somalia. This answer came along with the approval of a Pentagon request for authority to target about a dozen different suspected leaders of the al-Shabab terrorist group which have been operating inside Somalia’s border. This, despite the fact that the Pentagon announced in December of 2020 that a majority of U.S. troops which had previously been stationed in Somalia, would be removed from that country by early 2021. Almost 700 soldiers stationed in Somalia would not be coming home but would be going to neighboring countries or regions.
“The decision to reintroduce a persistent presence was made to maximize the safety and effectiveness of our forces and enable them to provide more efficient support to our partners,” Adrienne Watson said. The Biden administration strategy in Somalia starts with targeting al-Shabab members suspected of playing roles in developing terror plots outside of the country and then bringing that terror threat level down to something more tolerable. It was George Bush who said we do not negotiate with terrorists, so it is unclear what sort of level of terrorism is tolerable. The fact that our administration finds any level tolerable speaks volumes.
Of course, after the handoff of Afghanistan to the Taliban, the fact that our leadership finds terrorism tolerable should not be a surprise. What is surprising is that the administration is going after Somalian terrorists at all. It does beg the question though what threat these Somalian terrorists actually have to American citizens. How much of that threat is being manufactured as a false flag by the CIA? We have already seen in our own country the FBI tried to cultivate false flags multiple times, so is this a similar operation with foreign enemies? What does the administration gain by trying to control Somalia?
Officials state that it will be less than 500 troops that will be set back to Somalia, but refused to provide a precise number. The official went on to state that they would not be restoring the full operations and Somalia. As far as the reasons to why, the Biden administration believes that al- Shabab remains a notable threat and a priority due to that. Not having troops stationed in Somalia created an unnecessary elevated risk to U S forces as they moved in and out of the country on a rotational basis according to the official.
So it is for efficiency and consistency with work partners that we’re sending almost 500 special forces to Somalia. Is Somalia a sovereign nation? Since when are we in charge of Somalia’s Security? If operating in that country is such a threat to our personnel and we’re not supposed to be directly in that country, just passing through, why not just avoid it? There are so many unanswered questions by the explanation given by the administration.
Biden's decision revives an open-ended American counterterrorism operation that has amounted to a slow-burn war through three admins. The move stands in contrast to his decision last year to pull American forces from Afghanistan, saying that “it is time to end the forever war.”
— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) May 16, 2022
According to intelligence officials al-Shabab, which is linked to al Qaeda, currently has up to 10,000 fighters.
