A SOLDIER'S PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB'S LEADING MILITARY BLOG SINCE 2004
Right now seems like an especially opportune moment to turn one eye away from the Lebanon, Gaza, and Israel hostilities and look at the “fierce” fighting on another front in the War on Terror. There is a long standing strategy for this front; the exit strategy in this region is clearly defined and proudly expressed, and the timeline for withdrawal is, as it should be: NEVER!
This part of the series: “The New Front” explores a little more closely the actions of our US Military in the Horn of Africa. The tactics being employed in Djibouti spell out rather clearly what we hope to accomplish in the “Greater Horn”.
In an article by Jim Garamone of the American Forces Press Service, the “unconventional approach to fighting terrorism in the Horn of Africa” is explained this way:
“The weapon systems down there are well-drilling equipment and shovels, and building schools and hospitals, and training border patrols and counterterrorism forces,” Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Curtis Brownhill said. “It’s an elaborate civil affairs and security effort that is all about building capacity and confidence.”
U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Richard W. Hunt, Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa commander shakes hands with a teacher after the dedication of a school in Badal Segal on Tuesday. The school is one of 16 CJTF-HOA projects completed in the Gode area. [See related story here ]
“Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa is a small group of servicemembers who work with governments and U.S. officials in the Horn of Africa to improve life for some of the poorest people in the world. The task force is headquartered in Djibouti and includes operations in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Yemen.
“We’re fighting a war down there and haven’t fired a shot,” Brownhill said. “We’re taking on al Qaeda and associated movements there, and it’s the civil affairs piece that’s winning it.”"
U.S. Air Force Capt. Brian Brasher (left) speaks with Mohammed and two children at a boys’ orphanage May 15. Servicemembers assigned to Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa in Djibouti regularly visit local orphanages to share experiences and spend time with the children. See related story here ]
“The roots of the effort go back to 2002. After coalition and Afghan forces routed the Taliban from Afghanistan and fractured al Qaeda in that country, extremists “needed ungoverned spaces to squirt to, and the Horn of Africa is ripe for that,” the chief said.
Central Command representatives went to the Horn of Africa and worked with local governments, with U.S. embassies in the area, and with non-governmental relief agencies to give the people of the region hope. “With the civil affairs assets and training the militaries, (the task force) has provided confidence and capacity, and the people have pushed back from al Qaeda and associated movements trying to find another Afghanistan,” Brownhill said.”
The Sultan of Tadjoura, Abdoulaker Moumat Houmed, left, hosted U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Richard W. Hunt at his home near Tadjoura, Djibouti for lunch and a ceremonial exchange of gifts May 18. The United States military has established a presence in the Horn of Africa in order to deny a foothold in Africa for terrorist groups. This meeting marked the first formal interaction between Americans and the tribal leader of the Afar people, a nomadic group of tribes who live in Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
[See related story here ]
Garamone further suggests that there are “still problems”.
Continued drought is forecast for the region, and Somalia remains the largest “ungoverned space” on the planet. Warlords rule in the nation, and some are reported to be embracing a Taliban-like rule. Warlords have encouraged piracy, and most are corrupt.
The task force does not work within Somalia. But its work on the periphery of the nation gives people in the region “the will and confidence to say to these groups, ‘Not here; not today; not now.’ We see a brighter future than a dark oppressed future under warlords of a Taliban-like government,” he said.
Make no mistake, there are bad people out there who would do harm to any who oppose them. Militias and warlords rule the day in many remote areas within the Horn. The Islamic Courts Union in Somalia is slowly progressing towards capture and control of the hearts, minds, and possessions of the Somali people. Theirs is much the same as the tactics used by the Taliban as they overtook Afghanistan in the void left behind after the war with Russia. Warlords and Militias continue to wreak havoc there; the US among many nations struggling to identify the least of the bad guys in order to assemble a unified country from the ashes now left behind by the void left after the departure of the Taliban. It is not too late in Somalia, but the fight is not going in our favor.
All around Somalia, however, there are countries struggling through the worst of the human condition, still trying to chisel out some semblance of a decent life for themselves and their families. They can be left out to swing in the wind, as has been done to so many regions, among them Darfur, Eritrea, and others, or they can be engaged and assisted and led towards a life of self-sufficiency and true independence.
We are fighting two basic fronts as I see it. One is against an enemy who is at the point of believeing their choices are “kill or be killed”, and we are obliging them these wishes. The other front, however, is still at the “please help us help ourselves” level, and we need to make every effort to oblige them for this may ultimately win the GWOT over the longer haul; cooperation, assistance, and support need to be the long term weapons of choice in the human struggle.
Garamone suggest this:
Efforts in the Horn of Africa are all about building capacity, prosperity and setting conditions for progress. “You find that when you prepare the ground and set those conditions, often you preclude the necessity of having to go in and go to war,” he said. “It’s the preferred way of fighting.”
I for one couldn’t agree more.
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sue
This is just amazing!! Can someone PLEASE tell me why this is the first I have heard of it??????? I do keep up on the news and even the out of the way stories, but I have never heard of this. Thanks Haystack for sharing this great story!! OH wait maybe thats why I have never heard of this!! IT IS a great story about our FABULOUS Military!! Thanks guys!!
CJ
And it’s really just fun saying Djibouti, let’s face it. Djibouti, Djibouti Thanks for telling us, haystack.
Anthony
Haystack,
When people other than CJ started posting on ASP, CJ introduced them with a bit of background. I don’t remember reading anything about you. Could you tell us a bit about yourself – what branch of the service you are in, etc.
Thanks
haystack
Anthony,
I’ve never been asked that before, but here you go:
I never served in the military. I was too young for Viet Nam, and too old for Desert Storm. My Grandfather was too young for WWI and too old for WWII…a family curse perhaps, but he served in the old Civil Defense Corps. as his way of doing his part to support the US and the Soldiers fighting to defend her.
I had family that fought in VN, one a marine, one Army. My first father in law-Army. My second father-in-law, Air Force. My sister-in-law, Air Force. My father-Navy. My son-in-law, Army now in Afghanistan. My many “adopted” sons in OIF now include, a Navy boy on the Kitty Hawk, 2 Marines to and back(thank God) Fallujah, and friends all around the 2 main fronts…etc.
When we entered Iraq, I remembered Viet Nam. I remembered my cousins being spit on when they came home, even by some of their old school buddies. I remembered them and SO many others, some I still know, that busied themselves with drinking or drugging themselves to death in the aftermath of the sense of guilt our people instilled in them because of the way we collectively treated them; the sense they had done something wrong instead of the sense that they were heros. Nobody appreciated their sacrifice then(at least not enough of us to make a difference), and I vowed that in the age of the internet and blogging I would not rest…that I would try to go as far and wide to get the word about them and their greatness everywhere I could find bandwidth and air time.
I travel a lot for business. I make a point to approach every GI I see, thank them, shake their hand, tell them I appreciate their service and I say “God bless you for what you do”.
Last November, the noendbutvictory.com website was started by Josh Trevino, and I immediately signed up. I now own the domain and pay for that hosting service along with nobleduty.org, and my little political blog, hickpolitics.com.
It was through noendbutvictory that I met CJ, and he is an author level (I consider him a partner) at nebv, and in partnership he has given me the same access here at ASP. When I initiated the nobleduty.org website, it was after I adopted the Texas Military Family Foundation (tmff.us) out of Fort Hood where I have been several times now. I asked CJ to be part of, and help build, a coalition of bloggers to support Julie and other Soldier Support Groups going forward. He has my back on the milblog scene, and I am working the political blog scene. We have had good success joining blogs together for initiatives and special events, and I am working to try and grow this coalition along with CJ and others over time.
Until we win, until there is no war, and all our Soldiers are home, we must “never rest, never give in”, etc (from Churchill’s speech)…we owe them every ounce of support we can muster. CJ wears the uniform for all of us…I run the keyboard.
That is me…hope this helps.
haystack
SK
Yay Haystack!!! Nice to meet a fellow supporter, although in different ways.
Anthony
Thanks for the info. It seems like it used to be so easy, go CJ’s blog, read what CJ wrote. Now, with all of these blog coalitions and people posting on multiple blogs, it is kind of hard to keep up sometimes.
I don’t mean to be argumentative, but maybe you could help me understand what is the difference between nobleduty.org and noendbutvictory.com, and now the same stuff on soldieresperspective.us, which seems to be somehow also part of noble duty. As a reader who is also a big supporter of the troops (shaking hands at airports, care packages, Fisher House, USO, CJ’s They Have Names site, etc), and therefore wants to keep up with what is going on in the military, and also has a full time job and other responsibilities, it is hard for me to spend the amount of time it would take to read all of the sites. With all of the joint sites, many of which seem to be run by the same people, the medium seems to be moving away from the original purpose of getting a look into what it is like to be a soldier during wartime and towards more and more politics and the constant barrage of requests for money.
haystack
Anthony, there are a lot of questions buried in there, but bear with me as I try to explain.
CJ is on his own for explaining his multiple sites (though I think he would somewhat share this opinion)…noendbutvictory is for the purpose of not allowing anything to prevent victory and withdrawal, and only in that order. When you try to “address” victory, politics comes into play because it is our dear political heros that call all the shots…so we have to watch what they say and do and keep on them if they get out of line. Phone calls and letters are nice, but blogs with big readerships also help set the behavior of politicians because their staffs and they themselves sometimes go fishing around in these blogs to check the pulse so-to-speak. I am not sure about ASP, but NEBV gets visits from the Senate, House, Pentagon, CentCom, and all the branches of the “(dot) mils”…this means they are watching…if we do our jobs right, they may start listening and acting accordingly. That’s the pie in the sky, but what keeps me going with this.
In my case, I am personally motivated by my support of the troops so you are also going to see me come out with positive Soldier stuff in the mix with strategy discussion, media contempt, and political stuff…they are all intertwined, and it is something I am passionate about. My fellow writer over there is very much differently aligned than me politically, so he brings enough of a balance left vs. right, that we keep trying to find our way toward the middle of insisting that we do this thing right regardless of party and stay til it is finished…kinda like a little taste of Hannity & Colmes style exchange.
So, the tone is always pro-soldier, but HAS to look at political issues along the way that might sneak in and pull our guys out before the job is done. There is a fuzzy line between Military and Politics in an active war, so you will often see both.
nobleduty is intended to SOLELY deal with soldiers and orgs that support them. I have taken several blatant opportunities to use the bandwidth of each of my sites to get one story out to as many readers as I can. Folks that do a search for something in google and see any of our sites may casually “fall” into the site, having started out looking for something different, and then decide to look a little further…yes, somewhat shameless and marketing-esque, but the intention is to tell the story.
As I personally mature in this alternate media business, there will be more clear distinctions, but in the meanwhile I ask for your patience….CJ is likely trying to separate out categories into site-appropriate context as well, but this is a learning curve for all of us-the blogosphere is changing and growing and becoming more diverse faster than us “old guys”(sorry CJ) can sometimes keep up with. It seems that as we get better at this (or think we are) we try and expand, spread out, do some different things…
So, long-winded though I have been, I guess you pick the daily reads, and keep the others as the occasional considerations. ASP should be on your daily read over coffee number 1. I invite you to make nebv your read over coffee 2…but in picking and sorting, the “sidebars” like nobleduty and they have names is to supplement…I will offer to specifically ADD in a post or comment when something at an alternate site has info separate from the main sites if that would help sort it all out…
Did you know there are millions of blogs out there? I understand how tough it can be…feedback and advice are always welcome though, such as this…and I thank you for giving me pause…