What the heck is American troops doing in Niger?

[Willow]

OMG ! Not once have I said we should know any secret military plans. I give up.

I'm pretty sure you did.  Didn't you say EVERYTHING?

It's more than words. EVERYTHING the government does, including the military, is our business.

Jeff referred to "they" (the Special Forces unit in Nigeria) and yet you expanded it to his saying, "What the military does is not our business."  

...
It's none of our business what they were really doing .
...

Mhead, it appears that you are pretending you did not say what you said and concurrently assuming that someone else meant what he did not say.  I'd like to hope that this is an exception.

There also seems to be an assumption that the presence of a unit or a few units in a training or development support role constitutes a "military presence" about which the American public needs to be informed.  If that's the case you should know that we have a military presence in every nation in which a U.S. embassy exists.  

[LandElephant]

Here, I tell you exactly what we are doing in Niger.  It's called the Global War on Terror.  If President Trump hasn't been clear about the over arching plan the US has towards that then please listen more closely to what he is saying.

Again, The Global War on Terror.  What else do you need to know.

[Jess from VA]

What the heck is American troops doing in Niger?

Military troops kill people and break things.

In this case, our special forces are teaching other troops how to kill people and break things.

Now you know.

PS:  If anyone is paying attention, as ISIS/Al-Qaeda are getting their ass kicked and losing ground in the Middle East, they are advocating relocating to Africa for more fertile, open and secure ground.  

PSS:  The number of occasions where ignoramus and self important politicians, govt officials, and press assholes (citing right to know) have directly compromised small unit missions in dangerous places, and got our people killed or compromised is pretty large.

Ask yourself this.... If you were a member of a small US unit training local troops in Africa, would you be happy if your location, number, and mission was being made public knowledge in the press and TV newsrooms?  I don't think so.

[G-Man]

Would it make more sense to say the that if the general public knows, then most assuredly the enemy knows and is therefore not shared?

Exactly

Oh, you mean like saying "We'll be pulling out all our troops on May 31st" which has the "unintended" effect of creating a vacuum where all the territory gained by lives lost and battles won are returned to the bad guys??  

[Gavin_Sons]

OMG ! Not once have I said we should know any secret military plans. I give up.

I'm pretty sure you did.  Didn't you say EVERYTHING?

It's more than words. EVERYTHING the government does, including the military, is our business.

Jeff referred to "they" (the Special Forces unit in Nigeria) and yet you expanded it to his saying, "What the military does is not our business."  

...
It's none of our business what they were really doing .
...

Mhead, it appears that you are pretending you did not say what you said and concurrently assuming that someone else meant what he did not say.  I'd like to hope that this is an exception.

There also seems to be an assumption that the presence of a unit or a few units in a training or development support role constitutes a "military presence" about which the American public needs to be informed.  If that's the case you should know that we have a military presence in every nation in which a U.S. embassy exists.  

man it sucks when you're proved wrong. 
It's alright meathead, I knew you got confused about what you were arguing. It happens, just more often to you than others.

[G-Man]

Here, I tell you exactly what we are doing in Niger.  It's called the Global War on Terror.  If President Trump hasn't been clear about the over arching plan the US has towards that then please listen more closely to what he is saying.

Again, The Global War on Terror.  What else do you need to know.

They're not used to President actually taking a stand on Terrorism.  Remember, the previous administration didn't even want to call it terrorism.  

[The emperor has no clothes]

OMG ! Not once have I said we should know any secret military plans. I give up.

I'm pretty sure you did.  Didn't you say EVERYTHING?

It's more than words. EVERYTHING the government does, including the military, is our business.

Jeff referred to "they" (the Special Forces unit in Nigeria) and yet you expanded it to his saying, "What the military does is not our business."  

...
It's none of our business what they were really doing .
...

Mhead, it appears that you are pretending you did not say what you said and concurrently assuming that someone else meant what he did not say.  I'd like to hope that this is an exception.

There also seems to be an assumption that the presence of a unit or a few units in a training or development support role constitutes a "military presence" about which the American public needs to be informed.  If that's the case you should know that we have a military presence in every nation in which a U.S. embassy exists.  

You are correct. I assumed he was talking about the military in general. If he was referring to Special Forces operations I think it's pretty clear that is classified.

[Chrisj CMA]

You are correct. I assumed he was talking about the military in general. If he was referring to Special Forces operations I think it's pretty clear that is classified.

Nice try at a save.  I cannot see how (if you look at the sum of my posts) that you could have logically made that assumption.  But, that maybe explains the malfunction in communication anyway.

[Skinhead]

There are checks and balances, they just don't always include the general public nor should they.

-RP

Agreed. What many here are seem to be confused about is the difference between troop movements and strategies vs. the overall arching situation.

After seeing the crap that the general public will buy into, I'm REALLY glad that they don't let us know what is happening, other wise we would have troops defending a transgenders use of the ladies room and Trayvon Martin being escorted to buy candy and iced tea.

[The emperor has no clothes]

You are correct. I assumed he was talking about the military in general. If he was referring to Special Forces operations I think it's pretty clear that is classified.

Nice try at a save.  I cannot see how (if you look at the sum of my posts) that you could have logically made that assumption.  But, that maybe explains the malfunction in communication anyway.

The sum of my posts also should show that I was not saying we should be privy to classified info. I should have reread your initial post. My bad for that.

[MP]

Training troops have been there since the early 2000's, according to The Atlantic.
Then, in 2011, Obama began rotating regular troops in and out of there.

Africa is becoming an ISIS hotbed. 

You think maybe we are trying to prevent some of what has happened elsewhere?  Maybe?

[rocketray]

Which founder said "Free trade with all and foreign entanglements with none"?--for the Middle East--you tube /Google--Professor Pape "Dying to win".....only for those with 20-30 hours to really understand the Middle East

[G-Man]

Strange how those demanding information now weren't demanding the information within the 30,000 e-mails, or the information surrounding the Russian uranium deal, or the..........

 

[G-Man]

Riddle:

What's the difference between one gold star widow and the others.  The others didn't have democrat congresswoman listening on speaker.

You're right, not funny.