The United States Unknown War in Africa
For almost the entirety of our history, but especially since the end of the war of American aggression in Vietnam, the United States has operated a foreign policy that has trounced on the rights of sovereign nations all over the globe. The United States has waged wars abroad for the purpose of destabilizing foreign governments in order to expand the marketplace to increase profits for their economic empire. The United States is an imperial nation with no regard for international law.
Since the Pentagon operates 800 military bases in over 70 countries abroad it comes as no real shock that United States troops have been deployed to the African continent, but the shock comes when we realize the extent to which we are waging war in Africa.
According to reporting by yahoo.com based on previous reporting by Politico, although many United States operations in Africa remain unclassified the American Government was and is actively attempting to conceal the true extent of US operations in Africa from the American public.
The true extent of United States actions in Africa only began to be known to the American people after, "...the Islamic State ambushed American troops near Tongo Tongo, Niger, killing four U.S. soldiers and wounding two others.". This resulted in the exposure of 37 military operation codenames, the most prominent among them were Juniper Shield and Obsidian Nomad II. Another shock came as the realization set in that, "Many of these operations are taking place in countries that the U.S. government does not recognize as combat zones, but in which U.S. troops are nonetheless fighting [and] taking casualties.".
This is yet another example of the covert actions our government takes abroad at the taxpayers expense back home. Those on the "left" that only seek to blame Donald Trump for the radical decline of respect for the United States are only working to re-establish the facade that the elite who control the United States government so masterfully created, and upheld for all of American history, up until the 2016 election. Make no mistake, Trump didn't veer off course from the status quo of American foreign policy, he simply continued policies that were started under the Bush Administration and continued under the Obama Administration, although the Obama Administration chose to discuss it much less. What Trump did was blow up the facade that the United States is operating around the world in the name of humanitarianism and human rights, this is very helpful for journalists seeking to expose the true nature of the US government, but not much else.
It is believed that from 2013 to 2017, United States special forces personnel experienced combat in "...at least thirteen African countries...". According to reporting by Yahoo, those countries include "...Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Rep. of Congo, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, and Tunisia...". They go on to state that American troops have been killed or wounded in action in at least six of the thirteen nations the United States is waging war in without telling the American public.
Juniper Shield was the most prominent mission to be exposed, since it was the overarching operation for the mission that resulted in the deadly ambush in Niger which ultimately caused the United States footprint in Africa to be exposed. According to Yahoo, Juniper Shield is the "United States centerpiece counterterrorism effort in northwest Africa", the operation covers eleven nations and consists of United States teams rotating in every six months to, "...train, advise, assist, and accompany local partner forces to conduct operations against terrorist groups...". Unfortunately, in some cases such as in Operation Timber Sycamore, the United States is sometimes assisting the very same terrorists groups we claim to be fighting against.
Reporting by Politico reveals that, "Under both the Obama and Trump Administrations, the military has relied on partners in other countries to carry out crucial missions against suspected terrorists...". These missions were carried out under a little known legal authority known as Section 127e.
Section 127e gave the Pentagon the authority to "...fund classified programs under which African governments essentially loan out units of their militaries for American commando teams to use as surrogates to hunt militants identified as potential threats to American citizens or embassies.". This was an attempt to continue our policy of perpetual war while at the same time attempting to avoid American casualties after, "...years of massive direct involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.".
The ruling class knew that the American people were growing tired of sending their children off to die in vain in wars without end, so we moved the burden of dying in vain to those in the nations which we have already destabilized, and dehumanized. Those in power knew that the American people would only care about ending the wars if it were their own sons and daughters dying in vain, that comes as no surprise either though, as they control the channels of public information that then shape public opinion. We cannot let those in power convince us that any innocent people deserve to die fighting someone else's fight.