So This Is What 'America First' Looks Like

"Somalia, where two terror groups are locked in a long-standing battle, should have been an ideal place for President Donald Trump to showcase his "America First" commitment to international disengagement. The country is 8,000 milesaway, and its conflicts pose no obvious near-term threatto national security. Interventions in Somalia have already cost the United States hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade-and even so, the security of Mogadishu, the capital, remains tenuous at best."

"Trump himself has suggested that now is the time to get out. Speaking in September before hundreds of generals and admirals gathered at Marine Corps Base Quantico, he cited Somalia as a place politicians have wrongly thought they should police "while America is under invasion from within." Earlier this month, Trump was even more disdainful, saying that Somalia "stinks" and the country is "no good for a reason.""

"That was on top of the more than 100 U.S. missile strikes in Somalia so far this year, a much higher pace of attacks than either the 51 strikes during the entire Biden administration or the 219 strikes over the four years of Trump's first term, most of which targeted ISIS-Somalia's rival al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Shabaab. President Barack Obama launched 48 strikes in the country during his two terms, according to statistics from New America, a think tank based in Washington, D.C."

Somalia contains an ongoing conflict between ISIS-Somalia and al-Shabaab that poses no immediate threat to U.S. territory but has drawn extensive U.S. engagement. President Donald Trump has publicly advocated withdrawal and criticized Somalia, yet U.S. operations in the country continue and have increased. Reported Special Forces operations killed suspected ISIS-Somalia members, and U.S. missile strikes have exceeded 100 so far this year. Those strike totals surpass recent administrations' counts, with 51 under Biden, 219 during Trump's first term, and 48 under Obama. United States Africa Command has not publicly confirmed recent Special Forces presence.

Read at The Atlantic