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| Relax. Marines have been securing and evacuating embassy legations since at least 1900, IIRC. (And that's A.D., not Hours.) |
Multiple folks have sent me links to this story as though it's anything to panic about:
https://www.breitbart.com/news/us-sends-troops-for-possible-violent-congo-vote-protests/
Like we're either sending them to lick Ebola patients, and/or take over the country if the elections don't go right, with a whole 80 guys.
Guys, especially those who have zero military service, please: read the damn things before running around in circles.
"While Congo has been largely calm on and after election day, Trump’s letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said about 80 military personnel and “appropriate combat equipment” had deployed to nearby Gabon to support the security of U.S. citizens and staffers and diplomatic facilities.Translation: if the locals lose their shit, we may have to evacuate US and other allied nationals, and would want to bolster the probably six to ten guys who constitute the entire US Embassy guard there at present.
More military personnel will deploy as needed to Gabon, Congo or neighboring Republic of Congo, Trump’s letter said."
The Marines have Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force - Crisis Response Units, as does the rest of the .Mil, to make sure what happened at the Teheran US embassy in 1979 was a one-off situation.
The personnel and equipment sent to AFRICOM were overwhelmingly augmentation to the US embassy forces and evacuation facilitators, should that become necessary, not presidential election peacekeepers. We do that all the time with the Turd World, because we have to.
They'll probably also include an SF team or three familiar with the area, to set up a secure mission control and launch site out of country on safe ground for communication, command and control, and helo and aircraft support, should any of that become necessary.
A primary contingency mission of every Marine BLT afloat is emergency embassy and dependent evac. Sending in some guys to tally heads, pre-survey routes, LZs, recon the potential hostile forces and allies, etc. and augment the small embassy detail is common sense.
There are probably also a number of additional communications personnel, both to run radios and set up additional comms, or, worst case, to help secure and/or destroy everything in the secure vault there. And a Joint Attack Controller or two, to either bring in aircraft for lifts, or to drop some hate on anyone who chooses to f*** with the American embassy or its personnel.
So take a breath, and relax. We're not conquering a country the size of Texas with 80 guys.
Besides, some of those guys are probably in the Air Farce, and they'll be just as scared if things go sideways as the other civilians. (I kid. ;)
A short company of jarheads can lay down a huge amount of fire, if allowed. I do believe our current President will allow them to do what Marines are very good at doing.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the Hag and the Idiot during Bengazi.
Geography, folks. DRCongo is big, and both RCongo and Gabon are to the West. Current Ebola outbreak is on the Eastern border of DRC, near Rwanda, approximately 1,000 miles away, with exactly ZERO serviceable paved roads between there and Kinshasa. Wife asked me about a similar article, the writer of which had also apparently failed geography as well.
ReplyDeleteThe guys in question are essentially only a Pathfinder/liaison element. Not so much a combat unit per se, though anyone who'd willingly take on even a small Marine contingent could expect a short but exciting day.
ReplyDeleteIf things call for really getting sporty, the escalation tree is usually an entire Marine BLT, a Ranger regiment, and the 82nd Airborne, in that order, with a carrier air group on call.
I was thinking more of the ebola situation.
ReplyDeleteEvacuation sites are pre-surveyed periodically. I've done them, worldwide. You know if it's more serious when you start seeing tactical airlift assets show up. But...a whole lot of "nothing to see here" at the moment. OOW used to be a lot more routine than today, apparently people have forgotten this.
ReplyDeleteParticipated in a number of NEO's in Africa in the mid-late 90's nearly all done by joint SOF, long before the ARG could get there. I remember USMC ragsheet referring to our folks as "as hoc" after we evacuated couple hundred AmCits and couple thousand TCN's before they arrived.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is most of the real shitholes are too far from the coast even when the ARG( or whatever it's called now) isn't too far away
BG
Haven't we yet learned anything from the Hillary Clinton model. First release some kind of video, ignore pleas for support and then abandon all the Americans Finally, release an after-action report that there was a group of Africans out for an evening walk.
ReplyDeleteYes, we have learned from watching a US consul's dead body dragged through the streets of Benghazi on worldwide TV: that's why military assets are being pre-positioned 7000 miles closer to the potential problem.
ReplyDeleteWhich also kind of kicks the "voting doesn't solve anything" folks where their legs meet, right in their battery housing group.
And you forgot to use the /sarc tag. ;)
so for the question "what difference does it make?" apparently (in ONE case) means winning/losing a presidential election?
ReplyDelete-ncgreg231Lc2