Alex Thurston has an article in Responsible Statecraft today that touches on some of the same criticisms that I make of American foreign policy. He is attempting to explain why the recent American delegation to Niger failed to even meet with the leader of the coup and was, instead, told that American military were no longer welcome in that country. His theory is that we insulted the de-facto leadership of the country by sending too low ranking a delegation and further suggested that our presence in that country may not have been perceived to have been as helpful as we assumed that it was.
The American delegation was headed by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee and AFRICOM Commander, General Michael Langley, and included other senior officials such as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander. Thurston points out the assumption on our part, that an Assistant Secretary of State warranted a meeting with the Head of State was not shared by the Niger coup leaders. I go further and suggest that there was too much female in the makeup of the delegation for a macho group of military men, not yet acculturated the same way as is the American people and our Department of State.
I am certain that this insensitive comment on my part will become the primary focus for many, but it is not my principal critique of our policy in Niger. My principal criticism is of the broader policy that we have toward Africa in general and West Africa in particular. We see Niger's principal importance today as being a host for the airbase that we use to surveil and, I presume, sometimes strike radical Islamic militant groups throughout West Africa. Thurston implies that the coup group that now controls Niger may not see our military effort to be worth a damn. I again go further with my critique and conclude that our "over the horizon" mentality is not only not effective, it is actually contrary to our interests.
The simple fact of the matter is that we can not defeat Radical Islam with missiles and money. It is going to require one hell of a lot more involvement all the way down to village level, if it is to be successful, and we are clearly not willing to do that, hence the inadequacy of our diplomatic effort. Here again, my criticism is not just of the idiotic tactical mistakes made by our State Department, but more importantly the lack of awareness that dominates your and my thinking out here in the hinterland. This is a democracy. Imperfect to be sure, but still a democracy, wherein we elect people to positions in the government that is currently doing stupid things all over the world. It is not because we are bad people. It is because we are intellectually cloistered people who equate what we call education with intelligence.
I find it infinitely frustrating that evil people with common sense are screwing with us so successfully all over the planet, particularly because we are far too rapidly approaching a point where one or the other idiot will trigger a nuclear exchange. The appalling thing about the Niger debacle is that we are now looking for an alternative location for our drone base. If successful, we will buy our way into another country from which we can assassinate Radical operatives, thus ensuring continuing opportunities for radicals to advance in rank and position. Our idiotic policy will do absolutely nothing to stop the spread of Radical Islam in very large part because we don't, anywhere in the world, outside of our own non-existent borders, see what is happening at ground level. We don't even try to see what is happening and, when we get a glimpse, we hide in our devices.
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