Photo by Homini:) | CC by 2.0
Nobody knows anything. Trump can’t recall the names of the slain soldiers. Mad Dog Mattis can’t explain what the soldiers were doing when they were killed. Lindsay Graham and Chuck Schumer had no idea the US had 800 boots on the ground in Niger, even though they had both repeatedly voted to appropriate money for Africom’s operations in the Lake Chad Basin and in the Saharan Region, allegedly to target ISIS and Boko Haram.
Most Americans were shocked to learn that the US had any troops in Niger. Of course, most Americans were also shocked that Niger (of Bush-era yellowcake fame) is not Nigeria. They are also cautious about whether or not it is safe to pronounce the name of the country in public.
Chris Matthews, talking dotard at MSDNC, advised his dwindling audience that “jungle fighting” is always fraught with peril, apparently oblivious to the fact that Niger, one of the largest countries in West Africa, is mostly blanketed by the Sahara Desert.
And three weeks after the firefight, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, still didn’t know what happened outside the village of Tongo Tongo on October 4, 2017, despite having a surveillance drone record much of the firefight. Perhaps the general should consult Hillary Clinton, an expert in “happenings,” who stamped her imperial heelprint on the sands of North Africa in 2011 with the sacking of Libya, a debacle whose consequences continue to rock the region…