house Bill H.R. 6018
Should a Program Helping North African Countries Fight Terrorism Be Permanent?
Argument in favor
The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership is an important counter-terrorism program that is needed to keep both Africa and the U.S. safe, it should be made permanent.
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11/12/2018
Thinking that terrorism that is "over there" won't impact us is short sighted. Better to fight terrorism while it is over there, rather than waiting for it to affect us here. Groups like ISIS and other terrorist groups are using countries in Africa as training grounds and strongholds just as they once did in Afghanistan. Terrorism anywhere is a disease that will not be contained by ignoring it.
11/13/2018
HOW MANY COMMENTATORS HERE REMEMBER
WHAT THE “DOMINOS EFFECT” WAS IN THE 1960’s? I DO.
The US’s strategy in Africa combines military interventions overseen by the US Africa Command – including drone reconnaissance and small-scale special operations. This is accompanied by USAID’s social development initiatives to improve quality of life and foster civil society. In this policy scheme, Africa is seen as a patchwork of nations in need of humanitarian aid and military assistance.
But drawing attention to the cause of grassroots activists who are fighting for social justice and democracy right now would be a powerful addition to his arsenal. It would be vastly more effective than sending Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations, to talk to villagers in Boko Haram territory.
The case for supporting local activists in their fight for social justice and democracy is clear. African Governments that combine improvements in quality of life with transparency and fair elections achieve better economic results and greater political stability.
SneakyPete..... 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸. 11*13*18.....
THE “DOMINO OLD WAR THEORY”
FYI: The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states.
SneakyPete..... 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸. 11*23*18....
SEE: https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/domino-theory
11/13/2018
One major reason why the terrorist organizations thrive in Africa is because of the corruption of governments and the HIGH unemployment rates. By offering to build up jobs and strengthen local economies, this takes away terrorist organizations ground ability to recruit and survive. Not everything has to be military operated but I also suggest offering the African governments in question military equipment for a price. Our weaponry and vehicles do not come free and if they so want the equipment, they sign a charter that would mandate freedoms and rights to the people while taking away the corruption in governments there. If they do not comply but use our equipment by breaking the charter, their resources become property of the US government and our military is sent in to recover the assets.
Argument opposed
Terrorism isn’t as big of a threat as it’s perceived to be. There’s no need to spend any amount of funding to help North African countries fight against terror groups in their region.
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11/12/2018
Nope! Nope nope nope. It's not America's job to manage other countries' affairs. Every time we get involved, we end up making things way worse. Not a good idea. Besides, Uncle Sam never gets involved unless he can wet his beak. Who's benefitting from all this? No thanks. America's government is responsible for its own affairs, not those of nations across the globe.
11/13/2018
Manufacturing a permanent war with a nebulous idea... no. I think not. We’ve tried this already. It hasn’t worked.
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11/13/2018
We are not policeman of the world. We should not provide anymore funds to combat terror groups
either. That money never gets to the right place.
We should provide our outdated equipment and American instructors. If and when things get out of hand we mobilize with our European partners and squash the problem. As many times as necessary.
Take politics out of the decision making process.
Thinking that terrorism that is "over there" won't impact us is short sighted. Better to fight terrorism while it is over there, rather than waiting for it to affect us here. Groups like ISIS and other terrorist groups are using countries in Africa as training grounds and strongholds just as they once did in Afghanistan. Terrorism anywhere is a disease that will not be contained by ignoring it.
Nope! Nope nope nope. It's not America's job to manage other countries' affairs. Every time we get involved, we end up making things way worse. Not a good idea. Besides, Uncle Sam never gets involved unless he can wet his beak. Who's benefitting from all this? No thanks. America's government is responsible for its own affairs, not those of nations across the globe.
Manufacturing a permanent war with a nebulous idea... no. I think not. We’ve tried this already. It hasn’t worked.
We are not policeman of the world. We should not provide anymore funds to combat terror groups
either. That money never gets to the right place.
We should provide our outdated equipment and American instructors. If and when things get out of hand we mobilize with our European partners and squash the problem. As many times as necessary.
Take politics out of the decision making process.
HOW MANY COMMENTATORS HERE REMEMBER
WHAT THE “DOMINOS EFFECT” WAS IN THE 1960’s? I DO.
The US’s strategy in Africa combines military interventions overseen by the US Africa Command – including drone reconnaissance and small-scale special operations. This is accompanied by USAID’s social development initiatives to improve quality of life and foster civil society. In this policy scheme, Africa is seen as a patchwork of nations in need of humanitarian aid and military assistance.
But drawing attention to the cause of grassroots activists who are fighting for social justice and democracy right now would be a powerful addition to his arsenal. It would be vastly more effective than sending Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations, to talk to villagers in Boko Haram territory.
The case for supporting local activists in their fight for social justice and democracy is clear. African Governments that combine improvements in quality of life with transparency and fair elections achieve better economic results and greater political stability.
SneakyPete..... 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸. 11*13*18.....
THE “DOMINO OLD WAR THEORY”
FYI: The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states.
SneakyPete..... 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸. 11*23*18....
SEE: https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/domino-theory
One major reason why the terrorist organizations thrive in Africa is because of the corruption of governments and the HIGH unemployment rates. By offering to build up jobs and strengthen local economies, this takes away terrorist organizations ground ability to recruit and survive. Not everything has to be military operated but I also suggest offering the African governments in question military equipment for a price. Our weaponry and vehicles do not come free and if they so want the equipment, they sign a charter that would mandate freedoms and rights to the people while taking away the corruption in governments there. If they do not comply but use our equipment by breaking the charter, their resources become property of the US government and our military is sent in to recover the assets.
Why do we have the responsibility of “managing” North African countries? Have any of you ever just driven through the plains Indians reservations? Why not spend that same money in the various Native American Indian tribes to bring them into a closer proximity of modern America.
It would seem to me that either we do it, or the Government will subcontract the work to the army privatization companies.
Tax dollars vs. tax dollars.
I would be interested in hearing arguments on both sides.
Terrorism flourishes in areas where security, food, water, and shelter are scarce or unreliable. As a result, most terrorism victims are in poor or unstable countries, not in the West (something Westerners don’t know). Making this program permanent will help ensure security in these unstable regions provided that it is managed well (which hasn’t happened with Iraq and Afghanistan). Additionally, the United States has long neglected Africa as part of its foreign policy strategy; this proves ridiculous when considering how vital Africa is to future U.S. interests with China’s rise. We need to incorporate Africa more into U.S. strategy (of course, we must also avoid heavy-handed or botched Iraq repeats).
This concept should be passed into law. However, before that happens it needs some major changes.
First, instead of being administered by the military industrial complex, it should be administered by the U. N. Let’s give the responsibility to do the job to those that were supposed to have that responsibility in the first place.
To insure non-corruption of our monetary funding, we must have protection of our citizens hard earned money.
How that should be accomplished is:
A civilian committee with complete, direct access to report our progress or not to the proper department in Congress.
To insure non - corruption of the civilian committee, they can only serve one, three year term, with the establishment initially of this committee of a one time, special five year term in order to start the rotation process. replacements on the committee will be the under the complete power of the civilian committee.
This committee will use our Constitution as it’s only guidance with Robert’s Rules of Order to give it structure.
All committee members with total transparency, shall show all expenses that are of direct result of his or her service to his country. ( abuse will immediately get you removed from this committee)
All committee members shall be paid no more than $150,000 per year with the president of this civilian committee earning $175,000 per annum. This salary Does Not include expenses.
While it is honorable to watch out for other countries and fight to stop terrorism in its tracks, the United States is not a global law enforcement. So while we should assist when we can, it’s also the duty of our allies to do the same instead of sitting back and letting our military do all the work. If our allies truly care about peace and unity, they should put in more effort.
We also need to decide how much authority the UN really has. Because if it‘s only there is a faux coalition to serve as a “figurehead”, we might as well disband it. We should allocate a percentage of funds into making the UN more effective. Again, our allies need to do better as well.
No why should we that’s more money then we can afford take of America
While this is probably a nice help to those people, we need our resources here.
I think it should be made permanent but must be reviewed every 2yrs or so. To those saying Nope Nope you need to remember our country has interests in some of these countries and there are lots of American citizens living in some of these countries so again make it permanent but reviewed every 2yrs.
And hey, maybe if they work with more North African countries, the US feds can figure out how to fight our OWN homegrown white nationalist terrorism problem too! Wouldn't THAT be an awesome change of pace?!
Permanent is a long time. Terrorists are obviously bad, but we need an escape valve if this policy becomes too costly.