Dead Commandos in Niger a Bipartisan Failure of Strategy and Accountability: New at Reason

There are many questions about the U.S. mission in Niger and none of them are being asked on behalf of the public by Congress.

Bonnie Kristian writes:

When news broke that four U.S. Army commandos were killed by hostile fire in Niger last week, Americans might be forgiven if their first response was, “Where?” While Afghanistan is often dubbed our “forgotten war,” U.S. military intervention in Niger was never on our national radar in the first place.

There’s a good reason for that: American troops’ presence in Niger now spans three presidential administrations, but their mission has never been subject to congressional authorization or public consideration of the prudence and necessity of such an intervention.

The tragedy of this ambush invites us to correct that deficiency, starting with a review of the facts. U.S. troops, active in Niger since 2005, were first deployed by President George W. Bush to train local forces and support Paris’ counter-terrorism efforts in the former French colony and in nearby nations including Mali. In 2007, the mission was put under the umbrella of African Command, or AFRICOM, the Pentagon’s newest continental command center.

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