Senate hearing on the 100 SOF troops in Central Africa

[dknob]

http://www.c-span.org/Events/Congress-Reviews-US-Troops-in-Uganda/10737425002/

An hour into it so far.

But interesting I must say. Talking about the SF soldiers roles and whether it will be training and advising from the HQ level or whether forward deployed on the platoon level.
So far the biggest issue is coordinating to let Ugandan troops operating within Congolese borders and vice versa.

 

[dknob]

Damn - Our Representatives are 100x dumber then our Senators.

 

[pardus]

The LRA are a festering sore on humanities unwashed ass that needs to be removed at all costs.
The only thing stopping them being removed with extreme prejudice, has been the lack of balls from the west.

 

[dknob]

One VERY interesting issue that was brought up - which is the exact reason why there is a hearing; is the issue as to WHY the War Powers Resolution was enacted.

The reps asked the testifiers why this is different from other training/advising operations in which War Powers Resolution is not enacted and the testifier said "well the soldiers will be combat equipped in case of self defense". The representative said that every soldier is combat equipped when going into these types of operations so "how is this different?". The testifier started bending around the question.
One representative asked him the correct question: "Will these soldiers move within 100 yards of the enemy as to where self defense is absolutely necessary?" And the testifier started mumbling some dumb answers like "that would be unexpected".

Obviously the reps were asking the right questions, and Im sure they have no problems with the operation - but the guys testifying should not be diving and ducking around these questions especially when you can't make enemies out of these people.

 

[LimaOscarSierraTango]

I was able to watch most of it yesterday. It looked like Ambassador Vershbow was having a rough day and was completely unprepared. I expected the Reps to flip out a little more when they found out the operation had already started. Which leads me to question why this inquiry/hearing was happening. But as you pointed out Dknob, it was about the War Powers Act.

The entire time I thought the Ambassadors were looking to make a case to get support to go after the LRA... I mean train the local security force to go after the LRA. Then the Ambassadors dropped the bomb and stated there were some advisers/enablers already in place setting things up.

I felt some of the questions were kind of ridiculous, but some were very explicit.

Thanks for the link. That was interesting to watch.

 

[dknob]

i watch CSPAN often. Idk why

 

[LimaOscarSierraTango]

That would be one of the better ways to stay informed on governmental affairs. I have to be in the right mood to be able to watch it.

 

[dknob]

i have it on in the background when I work

 

[LimaOscarSierraTango]

Not a bad idea.