Buried under the dizzying headlines about Iran and Israel, many may miss that the head of the largest terrorist organization in Africa was recently eliminated by American-supported forces. Despite this demonstrated success from a local partner, the U.S. military is giving no indication of taking deployed U.S. troops or treasure out of harm’s way, despite fighting Al-Shabaab for nearly 20 years.
Like so many other miasmic conflicts abroad that don’t benefit Americans, the U.S. fight against Al-Shabaab is another one of those forever wars that President Trump railed against. Al-Shabaab had some origins connected to al-Qaeda and formally declared its allegiance to them in 2012. It currently functions as a clan-based terrorist group predominantly in south Somalia.
Its presence threatens Somalia, the east African coastline, and most east African nations. None of those places are within or remotely near the United States. Many interventionists argue we should deploy troops abroad to defend U.S. interests, which may be broad enough to include international trade. But the notion that Al-Shabaab poses a credible and capable threat to U.S. interests does not withstand scrutiny.
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