The US In Niger

People keep on asking Old Knudsen questions in his role as an international security analyst. Well actually they don't which is odd as I usually go on about shit months before the mainstream media start going on about it. 

To be honest Old Knudsen has been 'out of the life' for years and only became an analyst as I thought it had to do with butt stuff. 

  

Want to know about secret bases in Africa? I've told you about these before. The US only has one permanent base in Africa that's Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. When they say permanent that means they've paid the rent in advance and there is so much there that they can't just live there 5 years then evacuate. A permanent base is like a town. 

  Camp Lemonnier is a lot of fun on Friday and Saturday nights

There are other semi-permanent bases, these could very well become permanent or abandoned depending on operations. The way we find out about all these facilities is because construction firms put bids in for million dollar contracts in the area. The French base in N’Djamena in Chad near the Nigeria border hosts other nations and the US they are totally doing it are not interested in building a large $100 million base there.

In Senegal there is a firing range and a shoot house, a multipurpose facility in Cameroon, Airbase in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Arlit and Tahoua in Niger have outposts.

The US fly drones for ISR ... Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance from Niger, Djibouti, Ethiopia and the Seychelle islands. 

Since 2013 the US have been operating out of a temporary base at Diori Hamani International Airport in the Niger city of Niamey, Base Aérienne 101. They are moving operations to build a drone base at Agadez which is nice and central. 

Scruff of the neck training

Why are there US troops Africa? Why not? Everyone else is in Africa. The locals need training and support or they'll be over run and the insurgents will become stronger. Like in Syria ISIS took over oil refineries to finance themselves and in Niger they want to take over the gold mining. 

Of course the US is getting something out of it. If they don't help out these nations they they'll trade with China who has a large presence in Africa. Also Russia has signed a military cooperation deal with Niger and are also going to be drilling for oil in Nigeria so plenty of foreign competition for the area.

There maybe defeat for ISIS in Iraq and Syria after all these years but in Africa new groups keep emerging. The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, the Islamic State in Somalia, and the Islamic State in Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. 

ISIS merged with Boko Haram a couple of years back which showed how the threat is growing. Other smaller groups have merged too such as the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa  and the Masked Men Brigade which became The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and so on.

al-Shabaab in Somalia have been having management issues which had members split off to another group. Being the al-Qaeda flavour they don't appreciate members leaving for the ISIS brand. 

  

The attack in Niger that left 4 dead is the usual cluster fuck that goes on in the military. A lightly armed 12 man team of Americans and Nigerians were walking back to their unarmored pickup trucks after a village meeting when they were ambushed by 50 insurgents. 

The insurgents were better armed and well there were 50 . After 30 minutes French jets buzzed the area to try to disperse the insurgents but were not allowed to engage the enemy and then an hour later a private contractor from  Berry Aviation was used to airlift the soldiers out. They have the contract for that, what else do they let civvies do? Or how you avoid Congress for shady stuff and make your friends rich. 

4 dead Americans 5 dead Nigerians and others wounded. So you look at that and only 3 living soldiers were rescued 2 of them American. Sgt La David Johnson was missing. Johnson's tracker signal was activated which means he was still alive or the enemy set it off we don't know. What we do know is he didn't have an open casket. 

The military are trying to cover themselves. First they say the patrol did 29 patrols over the past 6 months with no enemy contact and now Mattis is saying an attack in the area was to be expected and as Trump says to grieving widows, shit happens get over it. 

The French and Nigerians did not leave the field until the bodies of the fallen had been recovered. 

It's a jungle out there ... some times literally. Or a vast stretch of sub-Saharan dirt and rocks. Niger is a big mostly untamed place with parts almost impossible to access. I suspect the village they visited tipped off the insurgents as 50 well armed cunts don't just hang around hoping to meet a patrol. Perhaps their patrol wasn't random enough, or they were tipped off from a buddy at the base, it all sounds very suspect. 

Then you have Trump trying to avoid any talk of it for 12 days. 

Not much in the way of winning perhaps they need the Kurd to help them out.   

More might be known about the Niger operation since I wrote this with the military finally settling on a good story to tell but this is what I know now.  

Sorry Not Sorry For Your Loss

His first military death, one and he's done

Just when you think Trump cannot fuck things up more. For 12 days he ignored the 4 fallen soldiers ambushed by insurgents in Niger. He tweeted about everything else but not them. He played golf and gave speeches but never mentioned the troops that he claims to support.

After being called out about it by the media he stumbled with excuses saying he wrote, will write will or maybe has sent out letters and that phoning the families is difficult and is also a hit and miss thing. Bush and Obama never phoned all the families. 

So yes he did make it about himself and the hardships of dealing with emotional people then blame shifted ... the usual Trump crap.

 Look at those smug Kushners, why do they still have security clearances? 

Remember his first military death? William “Ryan”Owens a navy SEAL killed 9 days into Trump's administration. Killed in a cluster fuck of an op in Yemen. Trump rolled out the widow who was still visibly grieving and spoke about her husband and how he would be happy cos he's getting a standing ovation and great ratings.

Old Knudsen was disgusted but his supporters refused to see that any of it was inappropriate, just like the pussy grabbing talk. Like angry teens they lash out and blame something on Hillary rather than face the issue of them being wrong and Trump being morally bankrupt and probably compromised by Putin.

  
Military are killed all the time, it happens. It's a sad and tragic loss every time though. The tragedy was made worse by the silence of their commander in chief. That fucker tweeted about everything and whined about not getting enough TV and too many negative news stories about.

As these soldiers with no backup came under fire from 50 insurgents do you think they thought, 'could be worse I could be in a Twitter feud or something?' 

They were out in the real world facing real world shit not tweeting on the toilet like a spoiled toddler.     

It is just heartbreaking 

Myeshia Johnson the pregnant widow of  Sgt La David Johnson was in a car with her Democrat congresswoman Frederica Wilson. They took a 5 minute call from Trump. Johnson still in shock obviously she could only listen to the president. During his little ramble he said:   

"But you know he must have known what he signed up for"

Johnson was able to just say a "Thank you" at the end of the call but Wilson wanted to cuss him out. Sgt Johnson from Miami-Dade county Florida is a hero and Wilson made sure that people knew it. 

   

General Kelly lost his son Robert in Afghanistan in 2010. He did not want too much media coverage because he knew that others had lost loved ones too and his loss was just as bad but not greater solely because he's a General. 

That's called leadership and dignity. 

After Trump went on the defensive about not phoning the families he blamed Obama. He said that Obama never phoned General Kelly when his son died ... yes he used General Kelly's dead son to score points. 

As per protocol I'm sure that Obama did phone Robert's spouse Heather. So as usual Trump is technically right but it's also a bit of a lie too. 

Some think that Kelly should resign over this. Old Knudsen has a big question mark over Kelly's integrity since he didn't resign over the Nazi enabling and several other things. I bet Kelly justifies it all by saying that he is keeping the world safe by not letting Trump near the launch codes. 

Sorry for your loss but shit happens, have to go my shows are coming on, have a good time.  

In the military depending what regiment you are in there is the chance you might be killed. You have to give that some thought before you join. There is also the chance that you might have to kill. Something else you have to think about. 

You don't want to do either but if a war comes you don't want to have to go AWOL in Canada to avoid it because you just wanted to play soldier for a while to get money for college.   

You don't sign up to be killed that isn't in the contract. You sign up to serve. Sometimes learning a trade or to get money for college is a motivation or you are just looking for adventure. Many times it's to be a part of something greater something noble. You sure won't get rich being a grunt. 

I hope that Trump's lack of leadership, his lack of empathy and all round disrespect to those who serve gets through to some of his supporters. 

Did he say this to the others grieving widows or did he just save it for the black one? 

We've heard what he's said about captured POW's he has no use for them. He also has no use for dead soldiers either unless it's to get ratings from their grieving widows. 

Trump is a cowardly, selfish bully who has spent his 71 years on Earth only thinking about himself. He only has a use for people if he can use them to score points off others or to get something else. 

He used his own son to appear the victim when Kathy Griffin took a picture of a fake Trump head covered in ketchup. Barron was just happy that Trump remembered he had a younger son. Family values are important says the man who spends every weekend away from his 11 year-old son.  

Then using Kelly's dead son to blame Obama. 

History will not look back on the Trump admin favorably. Is scoring points against the left really worth your self respect, dignity and nation?