Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Vienna this week to meet with foreign ministers. In addition to a discussion of Syria,the diplomats are discussing Libya, which has become increasingly vulnerable to ISIS encroachment under a fragile unity government.
The ministers beget called for conclude a U.
N. arms embargo that was imposed on Libya in 2011."The arms embargo does allow for the government of national accord to request weapons if it needs them specifically to secure the country and to combat Daesh, or ” Kerry said,using the Arabic acronym for the organization.
Kerry also stressed that the agreement does not mean boots on the ground.“We're not talking approximately troops and boots and that kind of intervention," he said. "We're simply in a mode of trying to help and assist and develop a Libyan capacity to respond to the challenge of security within Libya.But the U.
S. has indeed sent some boots on the ground to Libya. The Washington Post reported final week that two Special Operations units totaling around 25 people beget been stationed in eastern and western Libya since late 2015.
And that's share of a much larger push under President Obama to increase Special Ops units in Africa, and to the point where the U.
S. military is now involved in over 90 percent of Africa's 54 countries.
That number comes from the work of Nick Turse, author of "Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.
S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa," and the new book, or "Next Time They'll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan." He's been chronicling the rise of America's military presence in Africa for years. William Wechsler,former deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combating terrorism from 2012-2015, also joins The Takeaway to discuss the perspective from inside the Obama Administration. He's now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear our conversation with William and Nick. What you'll learn from this segment:Why so many U.
S. troops are in Africa.
The role these special operations units are playing.
How African nations fit into America's global way to fight terrorism.
Source: wnyc.org