Blowback: Arms US provided to African Union’s peacekeeping force sold by them to terror group

When the hell are we ever gonna learn? To stay out of the problems of others and deal with our own that is. The Danger Room blog @ Wired.com is reporting that Ugandan peacekeeping forces in Somalia are selling their US provided small arms to the Al Shabaab terror group. They apparently do this for pocket money since the Ugandan government doesn't pay them. Their pay is sent to bank accounts in Uganda which they can't access except when back home. So the troops are selling off  machine guns, rifles, rocket launchers and lots and lots of ammo to their own enemies for beer money. Go figure? Who'd have thought?

"Weary from two long, costly Asian land wars," the post says, "the Pentagon is mulling an 'off-shore' strategy for future conflicts, where U.S. proxies 'partners' do most of the hard fighting. Sure, the U.S. Army and Marines would help with training assistance, and the Navy and Air Force would provide high-tech support. But it would be foreign armies actually pulling the triggers. But if, like the Ugandans, these armies end up arming their own opponents, how can we count on them to actually win their sub-contracted war?"

An "off shore strategy"? More like creating repressive puppet regimes kept in place with foreign troops in the pay of the US. Great way to win friends and influence people, no? Actually no it isn't. When US supplied peacekeepers end up arming their own opponents, how can we count on them to actually keep the peace?

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The NY Review of Books has an interesting article about Somali pirates operating in the horn of Africa area. Jeffrey Gittleman who wrote the piece has a POV that consists of conventional statist apologetics (e.g. "if they just had a proper government here, it would all be better!") and which sucks, but it is an interesting profile of the pirates themselves. It made me ponder how Detroit would be if it were an ocean port city.