Why was it there in the first place I wonder?

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Why was it there in the first place I wonder?

    To surveil (and maybe to bomb) Islamic extremists that have a foothold in the region?

    • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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      11 months ago

      If you believe anything the U.S. has to say about fighting Islamic extremists after Iraq and Afghanistan…

    • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlOPM
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      11 months ago

      Well that certainly seems like shitty counter insurgency. It doesn’t effect the material reasons that led to insurgents and creates more martyrs which increases recruitment and helps align the civilian population with the insurgency.

      Outside of the tactic not being effective though, why is the US interested in doing counterinsurgency in the region?

      • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I would imagine western intelligence is very useful in fighting Isis. It certainly has been a huge boon for Ukraine in their war. As for why the west is interested in stopping the spread of Islamic extremism in Africa, foreign safe harbors for extremists often end up being training grounds for terrorists that attack the west.

        • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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          11 months ago

          Uh… Hate to break it to you, champ, but no one has trained, funded, and armed more Islamic extremists than the US. Maybe the US should GTFO of the places that it completely fucked up and let the sovereign nations that are impacted deal with it themselves. If those nations need help, maybe the US and Europe can start to return the trillions of dollars it stole from the continent.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      If you read the article it will tell you all about why the US military is there

      • Nightwatch Admin@feddit.nl
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        11 months ago

        The article doesn’t mention that Niger is also the prime supplier of Uranium for the French nuclear powerplants (and probably for more EU countries). Like it or not, that’s an important aspect of Western presence as well.

        • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          You’re right, it is no doubt a factor. I will say I think this Niger coup along with the other coups that have happened in the region over the past decade are France reaping what it sowed in terms of their post colonial foreign policy in the region. France urging respect for the democratic government in Niger falls flat when they’ve supported coups in the region in the not so distant past.

  • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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    11 months ago

    Oh. My. This is quite an interesting precedent. Let’s hope we start to see more of this. A new angle on dismantling the machine.

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      So when all the extremists that now can’t be monitored and controlled start commiting attacks in other parts of Africa, or sneak over the med to Europe to attack there, that’s a good thing because…?

      • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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        11 months ago

        Because the US is the worst extremist in the world, killing and torturing more people, more systematically, more continuously, and with munitions that poison the land enough to kill the children and the grandchildren who will be born there for decades later.

        The US needs to be stopped.

        • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          So you’re more than happy for people to die in Africa and Europe as long as it’s done by islamic extremists, just as long as it’s not the US? Fucking bizarre mindset mate.

          • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            After the U.S. spent the last 20 years indiscriminately killing hundreds of thousands of people (at minimum!) throughout the world under the guise of fighting Islamic extremists, it’s disgusting to trot out concern for lives as a defense of continuing the same failed policies.

          • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            Considering the number of people the US and Europe have killed in Africa is orders of magnitude higher than the number of people killed by Islamic extremists, and considering the US and Europe trained, funded, and armed many of the Islamic extremists that are causing the harm you’re so worried about, I would say it’s not bizarre at all.

            What’s bizarre is continuing to pretend that the solution to violent extremism is more violent power and military occupation by the imperialists of the continent when it was those imperialists who created the violent extremism in the first place.

            Despite what they might tell you, the US has zero interest in fixing the problems they caused. The blowback is valuable to them. They keep the cycle of violence going and it keeps generating opportunities to project their power and generate ultraprofits.