Posted on 06/10/2018 10:17:51 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
The U.S. Army on Saturday identified the American soldier killed in a firefight with al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab militants as Staff Sgt. Alexander Conrad.
Conrad was killed on Friday, while four other soldiers were wounded in an operation against the militant group.
The Army said Conrad was attached to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Airborne, in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Conrad was a Human Intelligence, noncommissioned officer, according to Reuters.
President Trump offered his condolences to Conrad's family on Friday via Twitter.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the families of our serviceman who was killed and his fellow servicemen who were wounded in Somalia. They are truly all HEROES," Trump said in a tweet.
The soldier's death marked the first U.S. combat death in Africa since last year’s ambush in Niger left four U.S. soldiers dead.
U.S. Africa Command (Africom) said the soldier and U.S. special operations forces were with 800-person Somali and Kenyan forces as part of an operation to clear al Shabaab from contested areas, liberate villages from the terrorist group and establish a permanent combat outpost to increase the reach of the Somali government.
Africom said the U.S. provided "advice, assistance, and aerial surveillance during the mission."
U.S. forces have been coordinating with the Somali government to fight al Shabaab for years, but the Trump administration has increased airstrikes and ground troops significantly.
There are currently around 500 U.S. troops in Somalia.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Why are we in Somalia? Did Congress vote on sending troops there? Has there been a declaration of war against Somalia? If not, the 500 troops need to return to CONUS immediately.
Somalia is a fertile training ground for the militants who end up in the Minneapolis area or as pirates. It benefits the US to have them nipped in the bud.
This is an amazing intractable proxy war; ala Vietnam.
On the surface it should be an easy win for the big boys and yet the enemy seems to have endless arms and support and they hold their own.
After the 'Blackhawk Down' episode, I believe the US military takes this personally.
They'd love to see them crushed but it's just not happening.
If troops aren't removed goals and strategies need to be re-evaluated.
He didn't like Somalis...or Somalia...one bit
Take the GD “gloves” off! It seems “rules of engagement” and the lame “advisor” status rears its ugly head again. Somalia is a complete sh*thole. Who would ever think since “Black Hawk Down” we would be back in Somalia fighting AND have American cities and towns occupied by these barbarians?
>> Who would ever think since “Black Hawk Down” we would be back in Somalia fighting AND have American cities and towns occupied by these barbarians?
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Sad and horrible. Obama did so much damage to our country.
if the army wants to win, there is only one way:
annihilate everything breathing in Somalia. Do that; problem solved (temporarily)
Regardless of what we think islam is, these knuckleheads think they’re doing the work of their god.
As these types seem to be eager to join their god, the US Army should oblige and most vigorously and create an exceedingly large number of “martyrs”.
Brutal, but such treatment is all these crazies understand.
The word for your suggested tactic is genocide. Something the U.S. tries to stop where possible. God did not create the United States to massacre millions of innocents to kill a few thousand Jihadis.
If you want to defeat these people, it will come down to that.
For that is all that these jihadis do is massacre innocents.
You fight fire with fire.
No where in my post did I say it was moral or ethical.
If you want islamist jihad to end, then every islamist must die.
And by the way, you have heard of the firebombing of Dresden in WWII. One air-raid and 100s of thousands died in a matter of days. or hiroshima or nagasaki
There are two reasons to be in Somalia:
1) Ungoverned spaces in that part of the world are breeding grounds for Jihadists. They take advantage of the chaos to prolong it and train and operate with impunity. We have to deny them places to hide and train, make them react to us.
2) Somalia is adjacent to the worlds busiest shipping lanes critical for North American and European trade with Asia. If we don’t help the locals put their house in order, our competitors, namely China, will. They have a new base in Djibouti, just north of Somalia, and are actively working to displace the U.S and European nations and created a monopoly dominating African resource trade.
See AUMY, 09/14/2001
The AUMF has also been cited by a wide variety of US officials as justification for continuing US military actions all over the world. Often the phrases “Al-Qaeda and associated forces” or “affiliated forces” have been used by these officials. However, that phrase does not appear in the AUMF.
According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, published May 11, 2016, at that time the 2001 AUMF had been cited 37 times in connection with actions in 14 countries and on the high seas.
The report stated that “Of the 37 occurrences, 18 were made during the Bush Administration, and 18 have been made during the Obama Administration.” The countries that were mentioned in the report included Afghanistan, Cuba (Guantanamo Bay), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Philippines, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
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