Committed President

From the Stars and Stripes:

"Obama commits US to intensified fight against terrorists in East Africa"

 

President Obama on Saturday committed the United States to an intensified fight against terrorists in East Africa, announcing here that his administration would expand support for counterterrorism operations in Kenya and Somalia, including increased training and funding for Kenya’s security forces. “We have to keep that pressure going even as we’re strengthening the Somali government,” he said at a joint news conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Obama acknowledged that al-Shabab terrorists retain the capacity to attack “soft targets” in both countries, even after years of American drone strikes and efforts from a regional, U.S.-backed counterterrorism force based in Somalia. But he said al-Shabab’s territory had been “systematically reduced.” Obama came to office vowing to move the United States off a perpetual war footing and promising to wage a smarter, swifter war on international terrorism. But his East African sojourn this week serves as a stark reminder that seven years into his presidency the long, difficult fight against terrorism remains a central and vexing component of his foreign policy. Security will also be similarly dominant during the president’s time in Ethiopia, a nation that has worked to keep the instability in Somalia from spilling across its borders and that has dispatched peacekeeping forces to South Sudan and elsewhere.

“Counterterrorism will certainly be a focus” national security adviser Susan E. Rice told reporters before Obama left for the trip. While al-Qaeda affiliates are the primary concern in East Africa, Rice said, “in West and North Africa, obviously we have seen [the Islamic State] become an increasing presence, particularly in the Maghreb, but also in Nigeria.” Kenneth Menkhaus, a political science professor at Davidson College, said it is hard to be hopeful that closer cooperation between countries could resolve the region’s problems anytime in the near future. “The Horn of Africa presents extraordinarily complex political and security dilemmas, for which there’s no obvious answer,” Menkhaus said in an interview. “The question really is which is the least bad choice, and how can you kick open doors which, down the road, could present opportunities for conflict resolution.” Obama’s decision to visit the African Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — the first sitting U.S. president to do so — is part of his push to build capacity among African nations to address the problems of their region. Ethiopia and Kenya — both of which border Somalia and South Sudan, countries that remain riven by deep conflict — have contributed troops to multiple regional peacekeeping operations. Both are part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), and the U.N.-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). In 2015, Kenya received $100 million in U.S. counterterrorism assistance — more than doubling the amount allocated the previous year. As a result of this weekend’s talks, the Massachusetts National Guard and the Kenyan government will sign a partnership agreement, a senior administration official said, and the administration has pledged to work with Congress to provide additional counterterrorism aid to Kenya.

 

 

 ^ How does Obama and Congress expect the US Military to meet these new commitments  - or even their current ones  - - when they continue to reduce the budget and manpower of the US Military? Our soldiers are already stretched thinly around the world (Afghanistan, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Djibouti, countless more countries around the world - not to mention those within the US.) Anyone with even basic math skills knows you can't downgrade your troop size and their budget and still expect them to take on more and more commitments. It's not feasible. I know Islamist terrorists have been attacking most of eastern and northern Africa for many years now and that needs to stop, but the African countries themselves need to do more. Right now they aren't very effective. Also, the other NATO countries need to step-up and do more to protect Europe rather than make the US move it's forces to eastern Europe as a show of strength against Russia in the Ukraine. And the whole world needs to do more to stop IS in the Middle East. ^

http://www.stripes.com/obama-commits-us-to-intensified-fight-against-terrorists-in-east-africa-1.359776