Meanwhile in Somalia with Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2023
⏱️ 47 minutes
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Summary
As U.S. counterterrorism efforts have waned in Yemen, Libya, and parts of Pakistan, Somalia has emerged as the most active element in the “forever wars” that the U.S. has waged since 9/11, according to Eric Schmitt of the New York Times. Schmitt traveled to Somalia in February for a rare embed with U.S. Special Operations forces on the ground in the midst of a recent offensive launched by the Somali government against a formidable enemy, Al Shabab.
Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sat down with Eric and his Times colleague Charlie Savage to discuss the conflict in the Horn of Africa and the extent of U.S. military involvement there. They discussed the roots of the Shabab insurgency, whether or not the current moment marks an inflection point in the fight, the legal grounds on which the U.S. government justifies its campaign, and why the American public and government alike should pay more attention to Somalia.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:32.6 | It's kind of moving both north and it particularly south. |
| 0:37.7 | It's going to be much more challenging, I think, for these forces. |
| 0:41.3 | And that's why you've seen the President, President Mohamed basically asking to increase |
| 0:47.4 | the size of the knob as the United States to finance, you know, kind of growing force |
| 0:53.0 | that he can use to try and push forward, but also just kind of building a larger military |
| 0:59.0 | that he hopes, you know, can help him push deeper to the south, really into the strong |
| 1:04.0 | hold of the Shabbat. |
| 1:05.6 | That I think will, you know, really be the test to see how far this government can accomplish |
| 1:10.7 | and of course, and as we mentioned before, just how much of the territory that it's |
| 1:14.5 | retaken can it hold on to? |
| 1:16.6 | And then, and then govern effectively. |
| 1:18.2 | These are just huge questions that no recent government and obligation has been able |
| 1:22.6 | to grapple with successfully. |
| 1:24.5 | So there's a lot to be left to be seen, whether this, this President can accomplish that. |
| 1:31.2 | I'm Tyler McBrion, managing editor of LawFair, and this is the LawFair podcast, March 16th, |
| 1:37.0 | 2023. |
| 1:38.5 | As US counterterrorism efforts have waned in Yemen and Libya in parts of Pakistan, Somalia |
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