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Rep. Matt Gaetz, Progressives Jointly Call for U.S. Military to Leave Somalia [1]

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Date: 2023-04-27

A measure to withdraw most U.S. troops from Somalia, just months after the Biden administration sent them back there, is expected to garner support from far-right Republicans and members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus when it comes up for a scheduled vote on Thursday. The author of the War Powers Resolution, Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, tweeted this week that Somalia, in the horn of Africa, “is not a vital national security concern.” Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. — the chair and deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is comprised of more than 100 members of Congress — have confirmed they will vote yes on the measure, according to sources familiar with their thinking. “Members of Progressive Caucus leadership will vote for the Somalia war powers resolution,” said a congressional staffer. “House progressives remain principled in their commitment to upholding the constitutional authority of Congress’s sole powers over war and peace, a check designed by the framers to limit needless conflicts led by the Executive.” The alliance is the latest sign of an emerging bipartisan anti-war coalition in the House of Representatives that has found common ground on measures to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and end U.S. military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. “Warmongers in Congress still outnumber those who wish to end forever wars, but that will never undermine our determination to keep up this fight,” Gaetz told The Intercept. “Forcing a war powers vote is the boldest action taken by any member of Congress on Somalia in recent decades,” said Erik Sperling of Just Foreign Policy, an advocacy group critical of mainstream Washington foreign policy that backs the resolution. The measure was voted down on Thursday, with 102 votes in favor and 321 against. Only 50 Democrats and 52 Republicans supported pulling U.S. troops out of Somalia.

There are about 500 U.S. troops in Somalia conducting counterterrorism operations against the Islamist militant group al-Shabab and, to a lesser extent, a local Islamic State affiliate. The Biden administration, like its predecessors, has argued that the war against al-Shabab is covered under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which Congress passed more than 20 years ago to pursue those responsible for the September 11 attacks. Al-Shabab only emerged in 2006, five years after it was enacted. The United States has provided billions of dollars in counterterrorism assistance to Somalia over the last 16 years, according to a new report by the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs shared exclusively with The Intercept. The U.S. has conducted more than 275 air strikes and commando raids in the embattled nation over that same span, with the CIA and elite troops creating local proxy forces to conduct low-profile operations. Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the Pentagon has conducted 25 declared airstrikes in Somalia, five times the number carried out during President Barack Obama’s first term but far fewer than the record high set by President Donald Trump, whose administration launched 208 declared attacks from 2017 to 2021. The U.S. has also continued its ground combat there. In January, for example, U.S. commandos killed Bilal al-Sudani, a key ISIS official, and 10 other ISIS fighters in northern Somalia.

“The U.S. is not simply contributing to conflict in Somalia, but has, rather, become integral to the inevitable continuation of conflict in Somalia.”

America’s undeclared war in Somalia has become a key driver of violence in the country, according to the Costs of War report. “The U.S. is not simply contributing to conflict in Somalia, but has, rather, become integral to the inevitable continuation of conflict in Somalia,” according to Ẹniọlá Ànúolúwapọ Ṣóyẹmí, a lecturer in political philosophy and public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. “U.S. counterterrorism policies are … ensuring that the conflict continues in perpetuity.”

U.S. Army troops provide security for a 75th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron Super Hercules during unloading operations in Somalia on June 28, 2020. Photo: Tech. Sgt. Christopher Ruano/Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa via AP

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[1] Url: https://theintercept.com/2023/04/27/reactionaries-and-progressives-jointly-call-for-u-s-military-to-leave-somalia/

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