(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Is this what a collapsing empire looks like in real time?
Amidst the news that the Pentagon will withdraw U.S. troops from Niger—a move that follows shocking whistleblower revelations that the Biden administration abandoned troops there—the African country of Chad has also asked the Defense Department to remove its presence from there.
Bloomberg reported on Chad’s request Friday, citing a letter from the country’s air force chief of staff. According to Bloomberg, the Chad chief of staff’s letter was meant “to warn the Americans that we have made the decision to stop their activity.”
Separately, CNN also reported last Thursday on Chad’s request for U.S. troops to leave the country.
Bloomberg noted that Chad’s request comes just ahead of a presidential election, which the country’s interim leader Mahamat Deby is widely expected to win.
If the U.S. leaves Chad, the Army would have to close what Bloomberg described as “one of its few remaining outposts to fight a roiling jihadist insurgency in the region.”
Bloomberg further noted that the military rulers of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, who all seized power over the past three years, have cut security ties with their former allies in the West.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is apparently planning its withdrawal from Niger.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose office investigated the Niger whistleblower complaints, expressed concern about how the Biden administration will handle with withdrawal.
“I fear the administration will handle this withdrawal similarly to the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Gaetz said Friday on Twitter. “The safety and security of all service members must be our top priority in this time of transition.”
The situation in Niger stems from the country’s government declaring last month that the U.S. military presence there is “illegal.” In a letter published last Wednesday by the Washington Post, an Army whistleblower accused Biden of endangering the troops’ lives by leaving them there against the wishes of the country’s new government.
“Americans deployed here have not been able to perform their primary mission and have been told to ‘sit and hold.’ It is clear that the country of Niger does not want a permanent military presence in the country and they have informed us that we need to leave,” the whistleblower said.
“At the same time, there are approximately 1,100 US Military Service Members in the country who are essentially being held hostage from returning home to their families while the State Department continues with failed diplomacy by not communicating with the country of Niger on what their withdrawal plans will look like.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
