Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador has criticized AFRICOM’s proposal to send United States troops Nigeria to fight Boko haram. In his publication for post-gazette, the former US diplomat outlined reasons why the proposal does not make sense to the American people. Read the full write up below;
Every time I think I have heard of the most ridiculous deployment of U.S. troops and resources, the Pentagon tops it with a new one.
This time, we were told by The New York Times last week that the Defense Department wants to send an initial “dozens” of U.S. special forces into the interior of Nigeria to fight the terrorist group Boko Haram. The proposal will go to the State Department and, presumably, to the White House. Boko Haram is made up of Muslim bushfighters who have killed and raped thousands, kidnapped schoolgirls and destroyed whole villages.
It is difficult to imagine how the U.S. Africa Command, the originator of the proposal, could justify intervention in strategic terms. It is more likely that the pitch is supply-driven, in the sense that AFRICOM is seeking more money in the defense budget and its generals are thinking about post-retirement jobs, arms sales, the hiring of consultants and the like. Otherwise, the proposal is crazy.
First, look at where the trouble has been and try to imagine what on earth it has to do with the United States. Boko Haram’s area of action is far from the Atlantic coast, mostly in a far corner of Nigeria near its borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger. What it has done is clearly the responsibility of Nigeria and its neighbors, not the United States.
Boko Haram is considered a bunch of illiterates, with no capacity to operate beyond its local area, in no way posing a threat to the United States. Its issue is that modern education in Nigeria is inimical to Islam. Northern Nigerians, most of whom are Muslims, should just study the Koran, according to Boko Haram. This has nothing to do with the United States.
Second, there is no shortage of resources in Nigeria to combat Boko Haram if the will is there. Nigeria’s armed forces number an estimated 80,000 and have a defense budget of $2.25 billion. Of course, a lot of that is stolen by Nigerian officials, a problem throughout the Nigerian government, which is another reason to stay out of Nigeria’s affairs.
The Nigerian military has showed reluctance to cooperate with the forces of Cameroon, Chad and Niger in acting against Boko Haram, a problem that the 250 U.S. forces already in the region, based in Cameroon, have encountered in their training and operations-support capacity.
Another plank in the Pentagon’s argument to send U.S. forces against Boko Haram is that the organization has claimed a link to the so-called Islamic State, which is a favorite U.S. enemy at the moment but which is based a continent away in Syria and Iraq. Again, it is extremely difficult to imagine that there is any real link between Boko Haram, in a far corner of Nigeria, and the Islamic State, which is fighting the United States, Russia and the military forces of Iraq and Syria in the battlefields of the Middle East.
Does AFRICOM really believe that Boko Haram’s professed alliance with the Islamic State can serve as the magic PIN number that will cause the U.S. government ATM to spew forth cash and troops for such an enterprise in Nigeria? Anything is possible, but it is hard to believe that even the warmongers in Washington will go along with this piece of fraud.
The thought of U.S. cooperation with Nigeria becomes even worse when one learns that it will include intelligence coordination. Nigerian Muslims are Sunnis, as are the Islamic State and al-Qaida. There is considerable suspicion that the Nigerian military and government are infiltrated by IS and al-Qaida supporters. This has already been cited by the U.S. military as a problem in dealing with the Nigerians.
There also is the fact that the Nigerian armed forces’ record of respect for human rights is, in a word, horrible.
It is reported that President Barack Obama might approve the Pentagon’s proposal to engage U.S. troops in Nigeria because it is perceived that he has not showed enough sensitivity to sub-Saharan Africans’ security needs. This is contrasted with heavy U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen in the Middle East.
But the United States already has a major base with thousands of troops, aircraft and drones in Djibouti, in northeast Africa, and has been involved nearby in Somalia since 1992.
Sending forces or putting our military and financial resources into Nigeria is simply preposterous, a major piece of fraud being worked on the American taxpayer. It is an effort on the part of the U.S. military to run a game on us. It is very much worth taxpayers’ efforts through Congress and the administration not to let this happen. There is just no reason to do this.
Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate editor (dsimpson@post-gazette. com, 412-263-1976).
