US Troops in Niger Fought 2 Hours Before Help Arrived
 

(Newser) - American troops and the Nigerian soldiers they were patrolling with fought ISIS-allied militants for two hours before help arrived, the Pentagon says. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a new timeline Monday of the deadly ambush, the Wall Street Journal reports. "This is a very complex situation that they found themselves in, and a pretty tough firefight," Dunford said. Four American troops and five Nigerian soldiers were killed Oct. 4 when they were ambushed by around 50 militants armed with machine guns and rockets. Dunford told reporters that it was an hour before American troops called for help from nearby French forces, and another hour after that before French Mirage jet fighters arrived at the scene near the border with Mali.

For reasons that Dunford says are unclear, the French jets didn't initially attack the militants, though French helicopters and Nigerian reinforcements joined the fight later in the day. The slain Americans were part of a group of 12 US troops and 30 Nigerians on a routine patrol to the remote village of Tongo Tongo, the Washington Post reports. They were ambushed after leaving the village, having spent the night there. Dunford said the investigation will look into whether their objective changed at some point, whether they had adequate communications, and why the body of Sgt. La David Johnson wasn't recovered for two days. The military is also believed to be investigating whether villagers delayed troops' departure to give militants time to set up the ambush. (Johnson's widow says she hasn't been allowed to see his body.)

article...

What happened in Niger was a total cluster-fuck.

What's Trump and his strategists answer -- shit happens?

Sometimes things go wrong but this might have been avoidable -- we need INVESTIGATIONS AND HEARINGS!

Benghazi?

You know what would be cool?

If Trump came out and gave a short speech telling people that

(a) He would investigate and release all details of the incident and the mission, and

(b) he would acknowledge that he mishandled his call and treatment of the widow of Sgt La David Johnson and issue a personal apology for calling her a liar, and public apology for lying to the world yet again, about her.

These are not only the easiest things for the Clown-in-chief to do, but it would go a long way to at least make him appear presidential.

My hopes aren't up. These 2 simple things are beyond his abilities, I know.

No instead treat the monkeys that follow 'The Trump' to a insult contest as a diversion.

https://s1.postimg.org/1xinyotir3/co...og-catcher.jpg

How juvenile ... How undignified

Why US troops are in Niger - ABC News

When did US forces arrive in Niger?

They arrived in early 2013 to help the French military that had intervened in neighboring Mali the year before. The French had moved into Mali after an Al Qaeda affiliated group and tribal groups took over the vast northern part of the country and were moving toward the capital of Mali. As part of the U.S. effort to assist that mission then-President Barack Obama ordered 150 U.S. military personnel to set up a surveillance drone operation over Mali that would fly from Niger's capital of Niamey.

How many requests for backup were ignored? Did he get a call in the middle of the night and say "screw it" like Sec. of State Hillary? Has Trump blamed the whole ordeal on a fake muslim video yet? When will he get a chance to lie to a committee, screaming what difference does it make?

https://i.imgur.com/UDzZmHa.png

Trump became Commander-in-Chief on January 20 th 2017 -- what is today's date?

when you're done inventing bullshit let me know :thumbsup

No.

First of all, we need to keep our military - as well as Homeland Security and our intelligence agencies - out of politics. What happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack, the Republican party made it into a political issue. We need to stop doing this.

What happened in Niger was a military incident, and this should not become a political issue.

We need to understand what happened. From what little they've told us about the operation, it was a small special forces unit (Green Berets) who were attacked by a vastly superior force if only by sheer numbers. People need to understand the concept of special forces - sneak in undetected, punch hard, and leave quickly before they are overwhelmed. Special Forces units are not designed to large and long fights.

At the same time, I already see people debating why there wasn't any support for this unit. This isn't even subject to debate. They were operating in Niger, in Africa; It's not like we have a huge airbase there with a quick reaction force. This is the exact nature of Green Berets, Seals, and Marine Recon - they operate outside of the range of regular support.

We can also argue that this was an intelligence failure. It seems the entire purpose of their mission was to collect intelligence; Most likely they had little intelligence from the start.

We need to allow the military to conduct it's own investigation, and not allow this to turn into a political issue.

What backups?

Do we have an air group in Niger? Or Africa for that matter?

Maybe a quick reaction force? To the best of my knowledge the nearest QRF would be in Italy, a little bit too far away to help.

https://i.imgur.com/SFMZThQ.png


Screeching libs have shit themselves gain :1orglaugh

Funny how surveillance drones turned into Green Berets on patrol.

Mission creep ==> damn good reason we should never even get started in these shitholes.

I don't know anything about drones.... However, if anyone has been paying attention to what our military is doing we've been active in Africa for some time now. It's not front page news, but it's not exactly secret either.

"Why US troops are in Niger - ABC News

They arrived in early 2013 to help the French military that had intervened in neighboring Mali the year before. The French had moved into Mali after an Al Qaeda affiliated group and tribal groups took over the vast northern part of the country and were moving toward the capital of Mali.

As part of the U.S. effort to assist that mission then-President Barack Obama ordered 150 U.S. military personnel to set up a surveillance drone operationover Mali that would fly from Niger's capital of Niamey."

You are trying to turn this into a political issue when it is not. You are pointing a finger at Obama. For me it doesn't matter who sent them there, but why. Obama might have sent troops into Niger, but we've been in Africa since long before them.

The first fucking reply to this thread was blaming Trump for this :1orglaugh

Then the other SJW retards joined in.

I'm just pointing out that the resident libs shit themselves, once again.

What are US troops doing in Niger?

They need to use that huge military budget somewhere outside of Murica

Terrorist groups are being forced out of the Middle East and moving into Africa....

Who gives a shit? I mean, seriously?

Let the apes duke it out.

If anyone should intervene in Niger it should be the French. Since we have no fucking business there, consider it a workplace accident.

It doesn't work that way. The moment we allow them to do whatever they want they will plan attacks against the US.

The entire plan is to "keep them over there" so they don't attack the US at home.

Good plan. Need to send this plan in EU

https://9502-presscdn-0-95-pagely.ne...of-752x501.jpg
:1orglaugh

making sure you can sleep at nite. isis trains there