Defense secretary eyes pullout from West Africa

[left-of-center2012]

Defense Secretary Mark Esper is considering pulling U.S. troops from West Africa as part of a plan to shift deployments of the approximately 200,000 American forces stationed abroad. Under consideration is a plan to abandon a recently built $110 million drone base in Niger, and end assistance to French forces battling militants in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the Times reports.

The U.S. has about 6,000 to 7,000 troops in Africa, with the largest number of them concentrated in the sub-Saharan region and in the Horn of Africa, it added. Officials said that a pullback in Africa would be followed by one in Latin America, as well as an expected one in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Esper is considering significant cuts in the Middle East, including a plan to reduce the U.S. military presence from 5,000 troops to 2,5000 in Iraq and withdrawing about 4,000 of the nearly 12,000 troops in Afghanistan, officials told the Times.

“We aren’t going to speculate on future force postures," a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/475810-defense-secretary-eyes-pullout-from-west-africa-report

[Submariner]

1. Out of Africa

Putin and Xi will be thrilled as they continue to take over the continent and its petro and mineral resources. It's as if Trump works for the commies, and the U.S. is okay with that. Sickening.