Where's He Getting The Money To Do This?

[John Thomas8]

Obama Authorizes Private US Military Contractor Involvement In Somali Civil War - Private US military contractors have also worked with the Ugandan and Burundian troops assigned to the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom). (allafrica.com)

It's ludicrous, stupid, and just plain unnecessary.

[kimba]

I assume it's going to come from the Defense Dept's budget. The Congress approves the Executive's budget, which includes all the Departments under the President and The President authorizes the spending from the approved budget. If you think Congress should approve spending, that's what Boehner is proposing with his REINS legislation. If you thought we were in gridlock now, imagine what would happen if every time any Dept. wanted to spend money it had to be approved by Congress.

[ducktape]

If you thought we were in gridlock now, imagine what would happen if every time any Dept. wanted to spend money it had to be approved by Congress.

If you think we're in gridlock now, imagine what it would be if John got his way and we didn't have a government, just him and 300 million people like him trying to micro-manage everything that is done for the country and society,

[Tes]

Obama Authorizes Private US Military Contractor Involvement In Somali Civil War - Private US military contractors have also worked with the Ugandan and Burundian troops assigned to the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom). (allafrica.com)

It's ludicrous, stupid, and just plain unnecessary. ...

Where in that article does it say that Obama has authorized private US Military Contractor Involvement In Somali Civil War?

The only refernce to Somalia in the article that I can find is:

Private US military contractors have also worked with the Ugandan and Burundian troops assigned to the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).

And, that statement says that they "have worked..." Doesn't say when they started (i.e., whether before or during Obama's tenure) and doesn't say whether it's still going on.

So -- ???

As far as ...

A Paris-based newsletter reported last month that Africom is soliciting bids for an air reconnaissance programme as part of the State Department's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership.

Under this initiative, Africom works with 10 countries in the Maghreb and West Africa to monitor and disrupt Al Qaeda's activities in those areas.

What's "ludicrous and stupid" about that? And on what do you base your contention that it's "just plain unnecessary"?

Edit: Ah... google your terms and I see that it was a copy and paste from reddit. Maybe you should read the referenced article before copying what someone else says that it says ....

[Tes]

A few facts from the
U.S. Africa Command Fact Sheet (PDF).

TIMELINE:

February 6, 2007: President Bush and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the creation of U.S. Africa Command.

October 1, 2007: U.S. Africa Command formally begins initial operations, with the goal of building the headquarters and preparing the staff to assume responsibilities for U.S. military-to-military relationships in Africa.
...
October 1, 2008: U.S. Africa Command becomes an independent Unified Command, assuming responsibility for U.S. military relationships, programs and activities in Africa.

FUNDING:

The U.S. Africa Command transition team was budgeted for approximately $50 million in Fiscal Year 2007, and the command received $75.5 million for Fiscal Year 2008 and $310 million for Fiscal Year 2009. The Obama administration has requested $278 million for U.S. Africa Command for Fiscal Year 2010.

Edit: And lots more fact sheets here

[ducktape]

Thank you, Tes.

John Thomas8, I don't know if you deliberately posted a misleading headline, or if you were too lazy to read further because you already had the provocative point you wanted to make. But this sort of posting is intellectually dishonest, and frankly makes you worthy of ignore.

Maybe you need an alternative place for posts like this where people will agree with you and won't demand you back up your rants with pesky facts.

[John Thomas8]

Sigh.

It doesn't matter that georgie approved, I don't approve of the actions of war criminals.

It doesn't matter that you think I don't believe in having a government (a false accusation, BTW), that has nothing to do with the current administration hiring sleezeball mercenaries to assist in killing people in Africa, while China is going in with economic improvement plans. (link is to a PDF)

It doesn't matter what you think of the article, it specifically said this:

At the same time, Africom is moving to expand its operations -- not in the form of uniformed US troops, but through private contractors who will assist in efforts to safeguard American interests in Africa

"Moving to expand": The date on the article is 26 Jul 10, so it has nothing to do directly with georgie.

Nothing disingenuous noted.

[Tes]

?????????????????
:::sigh:::: is right!

From:

At the same time, Africom is moving to expand its operations -- not in the form of uniformed US troops, but through private contractors who will assist in efforts to safeguard American interests in Africa

... you get ...

... that has nothing to do with the current administration hiring sleezeball mercenaries to assist in killing people in Africa ...

?????????????????
Where, exactly, does it say that the expansion of contractors relates in any way to any killing of Africans???

Where, exactly, does it say that the private contractors are "mercenaries"???

What the Fuddruckers are you talking about ???? ???? ????

Even AFTER I gave you links to the actual Africom website with a wealth of information on what they're doing ... you CONTINUE to draw a conclusion for which you have provided absolutely no support whatsoever.

As for "... while China is going in with economic improvement plans..." -- :::sigh:::: You imply that the US is not going in with economic improvement plans - an utterly ludicrous implication. The US has been "going in with economic improvement plans" for DECADES ... and its activity in that area is only increasing under the current administration, including BUT NOT LIMITED TO the following "economic improvement plans",here.

What is Africom doing?

Well, its projects include (but are not limited to):

Africa Partnership Station (APS) Maritime training, collaboration, infrastructure-building and cross-border cooperation to assist African nations in securing maritime regions and sovereign waters Addresses criminal activity, piracy, environmental and fisheries violations, resource theft, arms smuggling, and narcotics and human trafficking.

Civil-Military Assistance, Health Programs U.S. forces serve as examples of military professionalism while supporting State Department and USAID programs and activities Projects include schools and clinics, health programs, well-digging, clothing and food donation Promotes stability and improves disaster response In countries with high HIV/AIDS rates, the United States works at the military-to-military level to fund and coordinate awareness, treatment programs and clinics, enabling African troops to participate in UN and African Union missions

I can see a *ton* of perfectly valid reasons to to contract with private contractors to assist with these - and multiple other projects currently being undertaken.



Additionally, it's worth noting that, without security, there can be no sustainable economic improvement. Training military/security, etc etc etc.

Edit: From the article you linked (did you even READ it??????):

Many estimates of China’s foreign assistance in PRC official publications and in the existing scholarly literature do not appear to capture much of PRC aid activity. The China Statistical Yearbook 2003-06 reportedly released an annual aid figure of $970 million. According to other sources, annual PRC foreign assistance ranges from $1.5 billion to $2 billion.8 These figures would place China’s aid levels comparable to those of Australia, Belgium, or Denmark.9 However, many analysts, applying more flexible definitions of foreign aid, consider actual PRC aid numbers to be far higher. Some of the discrepancy may be caused by regarding many Chinese economic activities abroad as foreign investment rather than aid. In 2006 and 2007, according to various sources referring to PRC official statistics, China’s annual FDI outflows totaled roughly $21 billion annually.10 Counting some of these outflows as aid would raise PRC foreign assistance estimates; however, doing so also would lower calculations of China’s outward investment levels, which are small compared to those of the United States ($216 billion in 2006).
***
In terms of official development assistance as defined by the OECD, United States ODA is the largest among OECD member countries, followed by Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The United States’ foreign operations budget (bilateral development, economic, security, and military assistance, multilateral assistance, and food aid) was estimated at $24 billion in FY2008.12

[John Thomas8]

Where, exactly, does it say that the expansion of contractors relates in any way to any killing of Africans???

I'm only going by current demopublican hiring practices. You may not like it, or know who's getting hired by the military to do part of their job (that was farmed out by #41 after the Gulf War, BTW), but they're not hiring meter maids or Peace Corps volunteers to go to Africa out of a military project.

Non-military combatants = mercenaries, no matter who's doing the hiring.

[ducktape]

Non-military combatants = mercenaries, no matter who's doing the hiring.

Did I miss where it states they are being hired for combat duty?

Or do you just mistrust them all so much that you leap to that convulsion?