Somalia: not piracy catch all thread

[AdamG]

A commando unit from the US Navy’s Seal Team Six launched an amphibious raid on a Somali town, but failed to confirm a capture or kill of their Al Shabab target, suspected to be linked to Nairobi’s Westgate mall terror attack.

The operation could have opposite its intended result of discouraging further attacks. Analysts warn that even earlier successful targeted strikes against Al Shabab, a Somalia-based Islamist militant group, failed to curb the group's capacity to carry out international terror attacks, and that failed missions could in fact bolster its support and recruitment.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Secur...l-Shabab-video

[AdamG]

Despite the failure to capture or definitively kill the target on Saturday, Pentagon press secretary George Little dismissed the notion that the Somalia raid was a failure.

“Seeing some suggestions that one of our military ops wasn't successful,” he wrote on Twitter. “We knocked on al-Shabaab's front door. They shouldn't sleep easy.”

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...#ixzz2h3z2wPDI

[AdamG]

The Intel value (or not) of items dropped during the raid.
http://www.businessinsider.com/navy-...omalia-2013-10

[carl]

AdamG:

That's classic.

"Despite the failure to capture or definitively kill the target on Saturday, Pentagon press secretary George Little dismissed the notion that the Somalia raid was a failure.

“Seeing some suggestions that one of our military ops wasn't successful,” he wrote on Twitter. “We knocked on al-Shabaab's front door. They shouldn't sleep easy.” "

Even our failures aren't failures because if we fail we just change the definition of failure so it becomes a success. Ivy League educations are wonderous things, enabling grads to work miracles.

Too bad our inside the beltway genii don't understand that to fail is human and not to be ashamed of if it is an honest failure and one learns from it. That attitude is going to get us into real, as in national big war defeat, trouble some day if it doesn't change.

[Stan]

Hey Carl,

How about a disinformation campaign... loled into a false sense of security.

CA and Pysops

[John T. Fishel]

I had an Ivy League education and I resent that. Some of us really aren't stupid and can admit our mistakes. Others, on both sides of the aisle, have a real problem admitting they are wrong.

I've been wrong a whole lot of times (although I just can't seem to remember any off the top of my head ) but I still keep trying and hopefully learning.

Cheers

JohnT

[carl]

JohnT:

There is a rehabilitation program available, but it is rigorous and available only to those who will take full responsibility for their actions and are sincerely sorry for their transgressions. You mainly have to say you take responsibility and say you're sorry with a slight choke in your voice...once. After that, you're in. We didn't want to make it too hard so as not to discourage deserters from the other side.

[carl]

Hey Carl,

How about a disinformation campaign... loled into a false sense of security.

CA and Pysops

Hey Stan! How you been? Glad to see you back here.

We got 'em man. They all think our leaders are feckless girly men right now. Just wait till the ballon goes up and the sterling characters and courageous dispositions come out. Boy will they be surprised.

[omarali50]

Carl, Maybe that really isnt the world we live in. Isnt there a dialog somewhere in Wag the Dog where the Dustin Hoffman character gets a little pensive and wonders what will become of our civilization if we just manufacture a Potemkin war and sell it like we sell washing powder (actual words were probably different)..and De Niro says "that IS our civilization"...
Or some such.

[Stan]

Hey Stan! How you been? Glad to see you back here.

We got 'em man. They all think our leaders are feckless girly men right now. Just wait till the ballon goes up and the sterling characters and courageous dispositions come out. Boy will they be surprised.

Hey Carl,
Doing fine and had enough of the Dark Continent this year

I was just across the fence during our last fiasco in Somalia and I assure you the boys in green will not suffer fool to another administration

PM and email sent.

Regards, Stan