Support NeoGAF

[The Technomancer]

Motherfucker

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/...malia-designed-to-protect-civilians.html?_r=0

President Trump has relaxed some of the rules for preventing civilian casualties when the American military carries out counterterrorism strikes in Somalia, laying the groundwork for an escalating campaign against Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa.

The decision, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations, gives commanders at the United States Africa Command greater latitude to carry out offensive airstrikes and raids by ground troops against militants with the Qaeda-linked Islamist group Shabab. That sets the stage for an intensified pace of combat there, while increasing the risk that American forces could kill civilians.

Mr. Trump signed a directive on Wednesday declaring parts of Somalia an “area of active hostilities,” where war-zone targeting rules will apply for at least 180 days, the officials said.

Previously, to carry out an airstrike or ground raid in Somalia, the military was generally required to follow standards that President Barack Obama imposed in 2013 for counterterrorism strikes away from conventional war zones, like those in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Those rules, known as the Presidential Policy Guidance, required high-level, interagency vetting of proposed strikes. They also said that the target must pose a threat to Americans and that there must be near-certainty that no civilian bystanders would die.

Under the new guidelines, Africa Command may treat Somalia under less-restrictive battlefield rules: Without interagency vetting, commanders may strike people thought to be Shabab fighters based only on that status, without any reason to think that the individual target poses a particular and specific threat to Americans.

Motherfucker

 

[Foffy]

Creating a new generation of terrorists by killing civilians and normalizing hatred.

What can possibly go wrong?

 

[lazygecko]

More chaos and destruction = more refugees towards Europe = more populist support for his far-right pro-Russia buddies.

 

[RinsFury]

Slaughtering brown people, America's favorite bloodsport. Fuck everything about this.

 

[toastyToast]

I hope they declare parts of his face a war zone so I can punch him in it

 

[The Technomancer]

To be clear, Obama was also terrible here:

Last year, the Obama White House permitted the military to ramp up airstrikes in Somalia without always going through the high-level vetting process detailed in the 2013 rules. Instead, the military justified some strikes under an expansive interpretation of an exception for “self-defense” — including some that defended partner forces combating the Shabab even if no Americans were under direct threat.

And as The Times reported in November, the Obama administration — after years of internal debate — decided to designate the Shabab an “associated force” of Al Qaeda. That shored up the executive branch’s authority to wage war in Somalia by bringing the Shabab under Congress’s authorization to use military force against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But still

this motherfucker

 

[Carn82]

More chaos and destruction = more refugees towards Europe = more populist support for his far-right pro-Russia buddies.

all according to план.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Won't this bitch just disappear already..

 

[jet1911]

Why is that shit even legal? What gives the US the right to drop bombs on other countries like that?

 

[KorrZ]

Why is that shit even legal? What gives the US the right to drop bombs on other countries like that?

Legal? Who's going to tell the US no...

 

[Earthbound64]

the military was generally required to follow standards that President Barack Obama imposed in 2013

To be clear, Obama was also terrible here:

Last year, the Obama White House permitted the military to ramp up airstrikes in Somalia without always going through the high-level vetting process detailed in the 2013 rules.

So the rules were only put in place 4 years ago as a "general requirement" which wasn't even always followed?

Why is that shit even legal? What gives the US the right to drop bombs on other countries like that?

It apparently was legal until not too long ago.

 

[MrGerbils]

Murdering civilians is proven to effectively stabilize regions.

 

[Kerensky]

Interesting, how will they discriminate VC's from "green" forces, it would be quite a challenge without a recognised government and plurality of warlords claiming to be the actual government.

I hope the US will have learned from the battle of Mogadishu before doing anything drastic.

 

[Pusherman]

Don't worry about dying from hunger Somalians! Those drone strikes will do the job much quicker.

 

[BoogieWoogie]

Trump should legit not be allowed to make any decisions like this until the investigations are over. Wishful thinking on my part but still.

 

[KHlover]

Murdering civilians is proven to effectively stabilize regions.

You just need to murder enough of them at once. Target a few ten thousand or hundred thousand at once instead of just a few dozen. That seems to have worked pretty well for the US and the UK back in WW2.

/s

Spoiler

kinda

 

[RipperGrim]

Why is that shit even legal? What gives the US the right to drop bombs on other countries like that?

Legal? Who's going to tell the US no...

Don't worry about dying from hunger Somalians! Those drone strikes will do the job much quicker.

I mean there are people literally begging for US intervention claiming not enough is being done already, you think the USA just throws a dart on a map of the world and decides to fight it? Somalia is a war zone that just like most of Africa and it's problems it's being ignored.

I'm pretty sure the people of Rwanda would have been very happy if it was declared a warzone in 1994 instead of the bullshit policies that allowed a genocide to happen.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

all according to план.

(Translator's note: план means nnah)

 

[Rentahamster]

Why is that shit even legal? What gives the US the right to drop bombs on other countries like that?

We've been doing it for 40 years and nothing's stopped us yet, so our institutions are pretty used to it. Normalization, baby.

 

[Nivash]

If it's a war zone, that means the US will have to lift the travel ban for people from that area and allow them to seek refuge, right? That's how it works, right?

...right?

 

[PandaPandaPanda]

Creating a new generation of terrorists by killing civilians and normalizing hatred.

What can possibly go wrong?

considering he wants to increase military spending

this isn't surprising

 

[Zvonimir Boban]

To be clear, Obama was also terrible here:


But still

this motherfucker

And as The Times reported in November, the Obama administration — after years of internal debate — decided to designate the Shabab an “associated force” of Al Qaeda. That shored up the executive branch’s authority to wage war in Somalia by bringing the Shabab under Congress’s authorization to use military force against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Founded in 2006, pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in 2012, bomb the shit out of them for Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Seems legit.

 

[UCBooties]

Holy shit! If you thought the drone war was bad under Obama...

 

[Joni]

Thank god the war hawk wasn't elected.

 

[Alchemy]

It would be great if for once there was a news report that didn't make me feel disgusted that I'm a white American. This makes me want to puke.

 

[Derwind]

Well if I wasn't already afraid for my family in Somalia, I am now.

I honestly don't think Trump could even find where Somalia is on the map and yet he wants to declare it a war zone.

 

[The Last Wizard]

Black and brown people there right? So why the shock, they're declaring war on black and brown and how many are gonna stand up for Somalians when they're painted in a negative light.

 

[Veidt]

Somalia is getting better now and this fat fuck wants to fuck it over.

 

[ezrarh]

He's gonna fight climate change by making sure more people die at a faster rate than before.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

good job we didn't elect warmonger killary clinton



right Michael Tracey, Glen Greenwald?

 

[Meus Renaissance]

The morally concerning point here is that, as this was a campaign pledge, the American public will have played a direct role in these bombings that have come from the easing of the rules of engagement. We've never had a President who is openly hostile to Muslims. Until now.

 

[The Last Wizard]

The morally concerning point here is that, as this was a campaign pledge, the American public will have played a direct role in these bombings that have come from the easing of the rules of engagement.

The majority of the American public could give two shits about Somalia let alone Africa.

 

[LiK]

War crimes incoming.

 

[Boney]

mother fucker stop bombing the world

 

[Xando]

The majority of the American public could give two shits about Somalia let alone Africa.

Unfortunately they'll never understand the terror these drone and airstrikes are doing until it happens to themselves.


Gotta fight these terrorists that killed a lot of people 15 years ago though

 

[n00bsauce87]

And people thought Obama was really bad when it came to addressing enemy combatants in foreign lands.

I didn't even know there were rules that made it even easier that innocent civilians could die.

 

[Coriolanus]

The majority of the American public could give two shits about Somalia let alone Africa.

Yarp. This bit from hotel rwanda captured that quite well

And people thought Obama was really bad when it came to addressing enemy combatants in foreign lands.

i mean, he was. In the same sense that a drunk driver is a bad driver. Just so happens that the current driver is both drunk and has no idea how to drive a car, but fully believes that he a nascar pro.

 

[Glirk-Dirka]

He ran on the fact that he was going to go after terrorist families. His supporters will cheer this, if you live there, you must be an enemy combatant or supporter of terror.