What Chad has to do with Trump and Niger
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/21/opinions/niger-chad-travel-ban-trump-andelman-opinion/index.html
Just how was it left to Nigerian troops, French helicopters and some contract aircraft to find and fetch the bodies of our heroic service members killed in Niger?
Why did they apparently have so little air or intelligence muscle to protect them in the first place? We could get a final answer after the completion of a Benghazi-style after-action probe by the United States Africa Command, or AFRICOM.
But what already seems likely is that at least some of the blame lies with those who set in motion a bewildering series of actions.
The timeline begins on September 24, when the Trump administration suddenly and inexplicably added Chad to the list of countries whose citizens would be included in the latest iteration of the president's travel ban. Chad and its leaders were utterly blindsided as there was no sense whatsoever that this nation has harbored or even encouraged terrorists -- certainly no more culpable than such nations as Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, or for that matter Chad's neighbors Mali, Niger and Nigeria, none of which were included on this list.
Au contraire,
Chad's troops have for some time served as an effective ally in the region -- the best fighting force deployed in nearby Niger and Mali, with the best intel and best-trained warriors. They were the best because they were trained by the French and its redoubtable Foreign Legion. I know, because I was there in Chad in 1983 when the French had to send in their forces to backstop them when they thought Libya's Moammar Gadhafi might invade from the north.
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