Heartless, but true: There’s no reason for US troops to be in Somalia

Then, less than 24 hours later, the Wall Street Journal reported on White House deliberations on Afghanistan, where about 7,000 troops may be scheduled for redeployment orders as well. The two decisions produced a collective Washington freakout, with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigning his post in protest and ex-generals writing op-eds about how catastrophic Trump’s policy would be.

Now, we have learned of a third overseas conflict Trump wants to downsize.

According to a Jan. 3 report from NBC News, the Trump administration is in the process of preparing a decrease in U.S. military operations in Somalia, the Horn of Africa nation that has long been a euphemism for death and anarchy. Before Mattis left the Pentagon, he issued an order down the chain of command that one anonymous official described as “narrowing” the mission. The CIA, rather than the military, may soon be doing the bulk of the counterterrorism work there.

Somalia will be forever etched into Americans’ minds as the place where the militiamen downed a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter in the streets of Mogadishu. Most Americans may be surprised to learn there are any U.S. troops still in Somalia, let alone the 500 currently stationed in several different outposts.

In reality, Somalia has been one of the main fronts in the forever war known as the war on terrorism since at least the Obama administration. The U.S. conducted 45 air strikes in the country against al Shabab and Islamic State targets in 2018, ten more than the previous year. The latest attack occurred on Jan. 2, when 10 al Shabab militants were killed in a single strike. Since 2017, U.S. forces have been operating on looser authority courtesy of the Trump administration; U.S. pilots are no longer required to confirm that the al Shabaab terrorist in their gunsights is an imminent threat to Americans before releasing the missile. On the ground, Green Berets and Navy Seals are training, advising, and, in some scenarios, fighting with their African Union and Somali partners during specific raids.

Trump now apparently wants the military out of the Somali badlands, either because he sees the job of killing the bad guys as largely complete or because he doesn’t believe it is America’s responsibility to perform a job the Somali government should be doing itself.

The last point is well taken. While al Shabab is unquestionably a heinous terrorist organization, the vast majority of its targets are Somali or African Union facilities, buildings, and bases. They are essentially a group of thugs and killers who seek to overthrow the current government in Mogadishu and rule Somalia under their own dogmatic interpretation of Islam. Like the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State-affiliated militants in the Sinai, the al Shabab rig cars with explosives, send suicide bombers into crowds, ambush local soldiers, and extort the population. All of this is terrible for Somalis.

But as cynical as it sounds, it doesn’t mean a whole lot to the security of Americans.

As another U.S. official commented in the NBC story, “Not every nasty character out there is a threat to the U.S.” Again, this sounds cynical and heartless at first. But alas, it’s also the truth: There are hundreds of terrorist groups around the world who blow up themselves and try to turn the population against their government, but not all of them are worthy of a direct U.S. military response. The U.S. armed forces are not a magical, global counterterrorism force meant for everyone’s use. Even if they were, not all terrorist groups are created equal; some are so small and ineffective that dispatching U.S. troops to flush them out would be a waste of money and a disincentive for local authorities to confront the problem on their own.

Trump understands the concept. It may take awhile for the rest of Washington to come to the same realization.

Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.