Nick Turse is an award-winning journalist and historian, the managing editor of TomDispatch.com, and a fellow at the Nation Institute. His new book is Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa.
Each year, Congress mandates the US military disclose how many civilian deaths it was responsible for globally. In its latest report, the Pentagon refused to acknowledge any — following a long history of failures to own up to documented killings of civilians.
Last month, Niger’s government kicked US troops out of the country, a new blow to Washington’s counterterrorism efforts in the increasingly conflict-ridden region. It’s just the latest failure in the US’s long and destructive “war on terror” in West Africa.
The US admits that it continues to kill civilians in drone strikes across Africa and the Middle East. Yet despite US government promises, it routinely refuses to apologize or offer compensation to the families of its victims.
The United States’ 20-plus-year War on Terror has led to disasters throughout the Middle East. But the greatest failure of US counterterrorism operations may be in Africa, where they have destabilized multiple governments and led to a huge spike in violence.
The US’s deadly drone strikes have faded from the headlines. But in the Libyan village of Ubari, family members of the victims of a 2018 strike are still enraged at the indiscriminate killing and seeking justice for their loved ones.
The supposed point of the “war on terror” was to stop terrorism. Instead, the war on terror has created many, many more terrorists.
Journalist Nick Turse on drone warfare, US intervention in Africa, and foreign policy in the age of Trump.
Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy would have been bad. Donald Trump’s will be a bloody disaster.
The US is trying to win “hearts and minds” in Africa. It’s not going well.
