I thought we were there for training?
In Vast Jungle, U.S. Troops Aid in Search for Kony
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/w...y-us-forces-in-central-africa.html?ref=africa
In Vast Jungle, U.S. Troops Aid in Search for Kony
OBO, Central African Republic It has got to be one of the oddest matchups in United States military history.
One hundred of Americas elite Special Operations troops, aided by night vision scopes and satellite imagery, are helping African forces find a wig-wearing, gibberish-speaking fugitive rebel commander named Joseph Kony who has been hiding out in the jungle for years with a band of child soldiers and a harem of dozens of child brides.
No one knows exactly where Mr. Kony is, but here in Obo, at a remote forward operating post in the Central African Republic, Green Berets pore over maps and interview villagers, hopeful for a clue.
Their biggest challenge, they say, is Mr. Konys turf, a vast expanse the size of California in the middle of Africa that is so rugged it renders much of the American gadgetry useless. Picture towering trees that blot out the sun, endless miles of elephant grass, and swirling brown rivers that coil like intestines and are infested with crocodiles; one of them recently ate a Ugandan member of the force.
This is not going to be an easy slog, said Ken Wright, a Navy SEAL captain and the commander of the joint American detachment assisting in the Kony hunt.
Still, in the past several months since they arrived, the Americans say Mr. Konys army of around 300 fighters is showing cracks. No longer is Mr. Kony able to direct the massacres he directed just a few years ago when his fighters waylaid entire towns and hacked hundreds of people to death. His armed acolytes are breaking up into small, desperate groups, American officials say, and for the first time they are abandoning many of the women and children they had abducted who cannot keep up as they flee deeper into the bush.
The Americans emphasize that they have no interest in participating in actual combat This is strictly an advise and assist role, Captain Wright said, meant to strengthen the capabilities of African troops. Their deployment is emblematic of the Pentagons new military strategy for Africa, unfurled earlier this year, in which Pentagon officials say they will develop innovative, low-cost, and small-footprint approaches to achieve our security objectives on the African continent.
Already, American-paid contractors and intelligence agents are working quietly in Somalia. And small groups of American advisers have been training African armies for years, though it is not always clear how well this turns out. Just a few weeks ago, Malis democratic government was ousted in a coup led by none other than an American-trained army captain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/w...y-us-forces-in-central-africa.html?ref=africa