From WNYC Studios, it's Brian Lair, a daily politics podcast. It's Tuesday, May 17th.

So given all the attention the last few days to the shootings in Buffalo, obviously the Roe versus Wade reversal draft,

the baby formula shortage, the new COVID surge, and a few other things.

There hasn't been much discussion of the leak yesterday by the Biden administration to several

news organizations that the president is planning to send hundreds of U.S. troops to Somalia

in East Africa because of a growing

threat there from the insurgent group Al-Shabaab. The CNN report on this quotes an unnamed

U.S. officials saying, we have seen, regrettably, clear evidence that al-Shabaab has the intent

and capability to target Americans, noting that the group had killed over a dozen Americans

in East Africa in recent years, including three at a U.S. military base in Kenya in early 2020.

Now, by way of background, the Council on Foreign Relations describes al-Shabaab as an insurgent group

formed in the early 2000s that seeks to establish an Islamic

state in Somalia. The group is capable of carrying out deadly attacks across East Africa,

despite suffering setbacks in recent years due to an African Union-led military operation.

And it says the United States has sought to prevent al-Shabaab from

destabilizing the Horn of Africa, and it has increasingly relied on air strikes against suspected

fighters, that from the Council on Foreign Relations. And by way of further background,

President Trump, this hardly made the news at the time with all else that was going on,

but he brought 750 U.S. troops home from Somalia near the end of his administration.

President Biden brought all U.S. troops home from Afghanistan, as you know,

and he won't send any to Ukraine, as you know, but now he's speaking about U.S.

redeployment to Somalia. So what's going on with that? Why there, why now, and are we in the

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