How long will our Forever Wars last?

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America doesn't actually have troops on the ground in Yemen, but Trump decided to veto the resolution against the genocidal war anyway. So who knows how long we'll be involved in that disaster.

Almost completely ignored is our rapidly expanding war in Somalia.

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This week President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending a presidential declaration of a national emergency concerning Somalia for another year, calling the Islamist insurgency plaguing that country an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the US.
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For nearly two years, a small team of US Special Operations forces has been embedded with the Somali National Army, assisting in the fight against the militant group Al-Shabaab. As well as advising on airstrikes and ground assaults, the Navy SEAL-led team's primary task is to train and build Somalia its own elite light infantry force.
Named Danab, which in Somali means lightning, the force currently numbers only about 500 soldiers, too few to carry out operations in a country with a coastline almost as long as the east coast of the US. The plan, US defense officials say, is to eventually build Danab into a force of 3,000 soldiers capable of clearing militants from villages and towns across Somalia.
..."We think it's going to take approximately seven years for the Somalis to absorb all of these forces," a defense official familiar with the US counterterrorism strategy in Somalia told CNN.

US military advisers have been in Somalia since at least 2013. So 7 more years of build-up is planned, and that's if everything goes as planned. That doesn't take into account a final exit.
That would make it a 13 year war that is getting exactly zero discussion.

Something else getting almost zero discussion is our 18-year long war in Afghanistan, where three American soldiers were blown up just this week.
It seems that some effort is being put into ending this war.

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All American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan over the next three to five years under a new Pentagon plan being offered in peace negotiations that could lead to a government in Kabul that shares power with the Taliban.

That means a 23-year long war...if the Taliban agrees.

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snoopydawg's picture

I'll be bombing you."

"The bottom line is we're taking formations and fighters and leaders off the battlefield. And that is having effect on the network," Brig. Gen. William West, the deputy director of operations for Africa Command, told CNN in a statement.

The increase in airstrikes though has been criticized by some members of Congress and outside groups like Amnesty International, which has accused the US of killing civilians in Somalia.

While the US military has rejected Amnesty's allegations, US Africa Command announced earlier this month that it had determined that one of its 2018 drone strikes had killed two civilians, the first ever such acknowledgment by the US military in Somalia.
US military officials stress that the airstrikes are only one component of the US military's overall campaign in Somalia.

"Every strike we take, whether it's on the pace that we're on this year or on the pace that we've been on in previous years, is all done in support of the strategy. And the strategy supports the goals of security and stability in Somalia," Maj. Gen. Gregg Olson, the director of operations for US Africa Command said in a statement to CNN.

This was a nice one sided article. This superb piece of journalism never asks the question of what the hell the threat to America is. Like why anything happening thousands of miles away from America is a national emergency. Sure would be nice if it was one for the thousands of Americans who are homeless, food insecure, have no medical insurance and countless other problems facing them. Anyone know what the real reason is for why we are there? Oil? Minerals? Vegetables? ??

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

mimi's picture

averything goes and nothing gets resolved.

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Lookout's picture

New research by seismic services company Spectrum Geo has confirmed significant hydrocarbon potential in the seas off the Somali coast, especially oil, which is easier to extract than natural gas. https://www.offshore-technology.com/features/featureextracting-somali-oi...

We have to get that oil quick...before we drive ourselves to extinction. Doncha understand?

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

It used to be that only Congress could declare war. Presumably the President could veto the declaration. Peace was considered normal.

Now, Presidents declare war by Executive Order and Congress can only stop it by overiding a veto by two thirds of both houses. War is considered normal.

My people. My people. What have you done! The Constitution that I swore an oath three times to defend and uphold is just a rag to polish a con man's boots with.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.