So much for withdrawing from the world

When Donald Trump was elected on his America First platform, many people worried we would withdraw from the world. And walking away from the Paris Climate deal, and possibly the Iran deal and NAFTA seemed to confirm that we were pulling up the gangplank.

Ross: There’s a virus of distrust spreading through the U.S.

And then came the story about that ambush in Niger. A lot of Americans, including members of Congress, were asking what the U.S is doing there.

“Some key lawmakers said they weren’t even aware that the U.S. had 800 service members stationed in Niger,” one reporter stated.

So, General Joseph Dunford explained to reporters on Monday that this is nothing new.

“The United States military has had forces in Niger for more than 20 years.”

And now that ISIS has been kicked out of Syria they may try to sneak into Africa.

“That’s exactly why we’re conducting the kind of operations we’re conducting in Niger,” the general said.

Which prompted a reporter to ask how many U.S. forces are serving in Africa.

“Little over 6,000 forces in Africa and they’re in about 53 different countries.”

That’s pretty amazing. Especially considering the total number of countries in Africa is 54.

As fate would have it, while Dunford was speaking at the White House, Senator Tom Cotton was just down the street taking questions at a forum on extremism where he was asked a similar question. Being that he’s on the Armed Services Committee, he came up with what I thought was a pretty useful rule of thumb.

“If you ask the question does the United States have troops in this or that country, the answer is almost always yes.”

So much for withdrawing from the world.

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