Sunday, May 13, 2018

Junior officers at fault in Niger

Remember that action in the African nation of Niger that resulted in the deaths of four American soldiers last fall?  Of course you do.  It was in a country you aren’t exactly sure how to pronounce and you couldn't identify on a blank map of African countries.

The Defense Department completed a study earlier this month on how this happened.  It focused in particular on the mistakes of junior officers.  

Did junior officers send troops to Niger?  Did they make the decision to involve U.S. forces in that country?  If that’s the case, just what kind of outfit are we running here?


Info for this post, though not the snarky tone, was taken from an article by Helene Cooper, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, and Eric Schmitt, “In Niger Study, Junior Officers Are the Focus,” New York Times, (May 11, 2018), pp. A1, A12.

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