The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on "Counter-terrorism Efforts in Sub-Sahara Africa" has revealed the sincere effect of increased military focus on this region of the world.
The military budget for this region of Africa increased from one half billion US dollars to one billion US dollars. At the same time the USAID US dollars for democracy and governance were cut.
Here are two results of increased military spending by the USA.
April 21, 2016
By Elsa Buchanan
Around sixty soldiers (click here) are still missing in Chad following the country's presidential elections on 9 and 10 April, despite opposition calls for an independent investigation into their disappearance.
Were they USA trained soldiers? Or did they simply pick up guns and wore a uniform? Were they terrorists with an opinion different than Idriss Deby? This is ridiculous. What makes any USA authority think more munitions is going to bring about stability, democracy and governance?
The missing military are believed to have vanished after having voted against the incumbent president, Idriss Deby, who is seeking a fifth term in office in the election contested by 13 candidates. Members of the armed forces voted on 9 April along with nomads, while the rest of the population voted on 10 April....
In Somalia children are used as spies. I suppose that is an improvement from being child soldiers.
May 7, 2016
By Kevin Sieff
Mogadishu, Somalia - For years (click here) they were children at war, boys given rifles and training by al-Qaeda-backed militants and sent to the front lines of this country’s bloody conflict. Many had been kidnapped from schools and soccer fields and forced to fight.
The United Nations pleaded for them to be removed from the battlefield. The United States denounced the Islamist militants for using children to plant bombs and carry out assassinations.
But when the boys were finally disarmed — some defecting and others apprehended — what awaited them was yet another dangerous role in the war. This time, the children say, they were forced to work for the Somali government.
The boys were used for years as informants by the country’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), according to interviews with the children and Somali and U.N. officials. They were marched through neighborhoods where al-Shabab insurgents were hiding and told to point out their former comrades. The faces of intelligence agents were covered, but the boys — some as young as 10 — were rarely concealed, according to the children. Several of them were killed. One tried to hang himself while in custody.
The Somali agency’s widespread use of child informants, which has not been previously documented, appears to be a flagrant violation of international law. It raises difficult questions for the U.S. government, which for years has provided substantial funding and training to the Somali agency through the CIA, according to current and former U.S. officials....
There are other incidents in Central Sub-Sahara Africa where American munitions is creating nightmares rather than safety, democracy, governance and peace. The USA has no reason to be in Sub-Sahara Africa if it cannot bring about a better quality of life for the people there. Giving munitions to African governments turns their leadership into tyrants and not a democracy. Where democracy is practiced there is government intervention to be sure the current leader is elected again, basically a tyrant.
GUNS ARE NOT THE ANSWER TO ANYTHING!
The world has already witnessed the wrongful ways of the USA in an invasion into Iraq. Is the USA going to continue to destabilize the world and CREATE more danger for civilized governments? The political question frequently asked in the USA is "Are we safer today than before 911?" By this measure and the increasing military push by the USA military advisers in Sub-Sahara Africa; no the USA is not safer and neither are our allies, because the USA fuels the violence and does not eliminate it.
The military focus of the majority Republican Congress is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS to the USA, allies and third world countries.
In Somalia children are used as spies. I suppose that is an improvement from being child soldiers.
May 7, 2016
By Kevin Sieff
Mogadishu, Somalia - For years (click here) they were children at war, boys given rifles and training by al-Qaeda-backed militants and sent to the front lines of this country’s bloody conflict. Many had been kidnapped from schools and soccer fields and forced to fight.
The United Nations pleaded for them to be removed from the battlefield. The United States denounced the Islamist militants for using children to plant bombs and carry out assassinations.
But when the boys were finally disarmed — some defecting and others apprehended — what awaited them was yet another dangerous role in the war. This time, the children say, they were forced to work for the Somali government.
The boys were used for years as informants by the country’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), according to interviews with the children and Somali and U.N. officials. They were marched through neighborhoods where al-Shabab insurgents were hiding and told to point out their former comrades. The faces of intelligence agents were covered, but the boys — some as young as 10 — were rarely concealed, according to the children. Several of them were killed. One tried to hang himself while in custody.
The Somali agency’s widespread use of child informants, which has not been previously documented, appears to be a flagrant violation of international law. It raises difficult questions for the U.S. government, which for years has provided substantial funding and training to the Somali agency through the CIA, according to current and former U.S. officials....
There are other incidents in Central Sub-Sahara Africa where American munitions is creating nightmares rather than safety, democracy, governance and peace. The USA has no reason to be in Sub-Sahara Africa if it cannot bring about a better quality of life for the people there. Giving munitions to African governments turns their leadership into tyrants and not a democracy. Where democracy is practiced there is government intervention to be sure the current leader is elected again, basically a tyrant.
GUNS ARE NOT THE ANSWER TO ANYTHING!
The world has already witnessed the wrongful ways of the USA in an invasion into Iraq. Is the USA going to continue to destabilize the world and CREATE more danger for civilized governments? The political question frequently asked in the USA is "Are we safer today than before 911?" By this measure and the increasing military push by the USA military advisers in Sub-Sahara Africa; no the USA is not safer and neither are our allies, because the USA fuels the violence and does not eliminate it.
The military focus of the majority Republican Congress is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS to the USA, allies and third world countries.
