Africom Stands Up 2006-2017

[davidbfpo]

Stan,

Thank you for your wise words as an experienced African "old hand".

It does appear from this latest "puff" NYT article on the Kansas-based brigade that little has been learnt - from Mali - and sadly it appears the USA's only helping hand for Africa comes in a uniform with a gun and just maybe a drone.

The same article appears on SWJ Blog and has one comment by hitman483 (who I don't think is a SWC contributor) :

This has to be a joke. The military, specifically, the US Army is coming up with a Foreign Internal Defense (FID) strategy for the African continent. So we are going to mentor, train, and advise different countries National Security Forces in Africa on how to defeat insurgencies and terrorists attacks. OK, we couldn't beat the insurgencies in Iraq or Afghanistan and the Army is putting plans together for FID in Africa. LOL, I can't wait to see this. US Army conventional forces conducting Irregular Warfare training. This is a lose, lose all day long.

Department of State (DOS) should handle this. Because, it's the police that will be out in front. Once again, insurgencies and terrorists are criminals, not combatants. Organized narcotics gangs, and organized crime have the same makeup of terrorist and insurgent cells. The behavior is the same. It's a shame the military doesn't understand this.

The author is a former Embedded Police Mentor and former Law Enforcement Professional. Assigned to Special Operations Task Force South (SOTF South)from 2010-2012.