Africa has seen the most dramatic growth in the deployment of America’s elite troops of any region of the globe over the past decade, according to newly released numbers.
In 2006, just 1% of commandos sent overseas were deployed in the U.S. Africa Command area of operations. In 2016, 17.26% of all U.S. Special Operations forces - Navy SEALs and Green Berets among them - deployed abroad were sent to Africa, according to data supplied to The Intercept by U.S. Special Operations Command. That total ranks second only to the Greater Middle East where the U.S. is waging war against enemies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
“In Africa, we are not the kinetic solution,” Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, told African Defense, a U.S. trade publication, early this fall. “We are not at war in Africa - but our African partners certainly are.”
That statement stands in stark contrast to this year’s missions in Somalia where, for example, U.S. Special Operations forces assisted local commandos in killing several members of the militant group, al-Shabab and Libya, where they supported local fighters battling members of the Islamic State. These missions also speak to the exponential growth of special operations on the continent.
You can read the rest @
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/31/u-s-special-operations-numbers-surge-in-africas-shadow-wars/
OK, I can see how "our African partners" might want such help. After all, putting down popular rebellions has never been easy.
But can you point to a single instance in which that help has resulted in the creation of a democratic government which truly benefits the people of the region?
And by "benefits the people" I don't mean killing rebels while corporations steal the wealth of the region. That only benefits the economic hit men and their bosses.
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