On Saturday (5/10/13) the United States carried out two special forces operations against high profile Islamist terror targets. While I'm still utterly furious that the US has still not reigned in Chris Brown and it's operation against Rihanna is still continuing I am not yet at the point where I want to go into a high level of detail about either of these operations. However I think it is fair to expand on things that I have already said on Twitter.
Basically neither of these operations had very much to do with terrorism. Instead they were about showing the world that the US is still powerful in light of the drubbing it has taken over the Rihanna operation. Also on the domestic stage US President Barack Obama was hoping to use these operations to invoke the spirit of the successful operation to kill Osama bin Laden in order to re-assert his authority as Commander in Chief in order to put pressure on the Republicans in the shutdown/Obamacare debate.
Take for example the Delta Force operation to capture of Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai (aka Anas al-Liby) in Tripoli, Libya. Although it's better for the US to have al-Ruqai in custody then not he is really a spent force in terms of the al-Qaeda leadership who had been living in semi-retirement in Libya. That is why the operation to capture him was closer to an everyday police operation to arrest a wanted suspect rather then a military raid full of derring do. By capturing al-Ruqai Obama has rather shot himself in the foot because there is inevitably going to be an argument between the Republicans who will want to see him sent to Guantanamo Bay and Democrats who will want to see him stand civilian trial in New York. This is really not the sort of distraction the US needs with the government shutdown continuing and the debt ceiling argument looming large. Fortunately this argument is rather null and void because 15 years on from the US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania al-Liby's intelligence value is extremely limited.
The Navy SEAL team raid into Somalia in an attempt to capture a senior al-Shaabab leader believed to be Ahmed Abdi Godane is more interesting. Coming almost 20 years to the day that Delta Force soldiers tried and failed to capture two lieutenants of the Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Adid in Mogadishu this was supposed to exercises the demons of the failed operation that was immortalised in the film "Blackhawk Down." It was also intended to be the US showing the world that it had no involvement in the recent attack on the Westgate Mall in Kenya and was prepared to take action against the people responsible. Finally the US were hoping to capture Godane in order to interrogate him. Any intelligence he revealed or the US could claim he had revealed could then be used to put pressure on the UK in order to keep them in line for the rest of Rihanna's tour.
Unfortunately though it appears that the Somali operation has been a total failure with the SEALs being forced to retreat without capturing Godane and there being little evidence he was even present during the confrontation let alone killed. Fortunately though this does provide Obama with something of a teachable moment in terms of the Rihanna operation. After all while the Navy might be extremely capable and well trained you cannot expect them to work miracles so they are no replacement for effective leadership.
16:30 on 6/10/13.
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