Pentagon Confirms Delayed Withdrawal Of U.S. Troops From Niger

Last Saturday the Washington Post claimed that the U.S. had agreed to move its troops out of Sudan:

U.S. agrees to withdraw American troops from Niger

Other media made similar claims:

US troops set to withdraw from Niger, State Department official says - CNN
US plans to withdraw forces from Niger - The Hill

I found those claims to be wrong:

The U.S. drone base in Niger is used by the Pentagon and CIA to keep control of ISIS in the region.

So are U.S. troops really leaving Niger?

Of course not - at least not yet.

The next paragraph reveals what was really agreed upon. It makes it obvious that the U.S. wants to delay the issue as long as possible:

“We’ve agreed to begin conversations within days about how to develop a plan” to withdraw troops, said the senior State Department official. “They’ve agreed that we do it in an orderly and responsible way. And we will need to probably dispatch folks to Niamey to sit down and hash it out. And that of course will be a Defense Department project.”

- "We have agreed to begin conservations" - (we didn't really agree to pull out troops, just to talks)
- "about how to develop a plan" - (should we write a plan for something-something in Excel or Word?)
- "in an orderly and responsible way" - (we see absolutely no time pressure or deadline)
- "need to probably dispatch folks to Niamey" - (there will be many delays and the team will change often)
- "that of course will be a Defense Department project" - (We, the State Department, will hardly be involved. When the shit hits the fan the Pentagon will be to blame for it.)

The attempt by the State Department to kick the ball into the Pentagon's yard led to the inevitable result. Not ever in recent memory did the Pentagon leave a U.S. base in a foreign country without a significant threat against it. It is thus slow walking to implement the State Department decision by rejecting its pronounced claim:

No final decision on withdrawing US troops from Niger and Chad, top official tells AP

Cont. reading: Pentagon Confirms Delayed Withdrawal Of U.S. Troops From Niger

Posted by b at 14:46 UTC

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/04/pentagon-confirms-delayed-withdrawal-of-us-troops-from-niger.html