The Empire Update for Nov. 23 covering the Grand Finale of Trump's promise to end the Afghanistan War; what's really behind the Somalia troop withdrawal; US-backed monarchy sparks new potential war in Africa; State Department takes new action for Israel against BDS movement; and potential for Trump

The Empire Update for Nov. 23 covering the Grand Finale of Trump's promise to end the Afghanistan War; what's really behind the Somalia troop withdrawal; US-backed monarchy sparks new potential war in Africa; State Department takes new action for Israel against BDS movement; and potential for Trump to start a war with Iran on his way out. http://theempirefiles.tv

Transcript

Abby Martin

This is Abby Martin with Your Empire Update, wrapping up the last week of US imperialism.

After hyping up for four years that all troops would be removed from Afghanistan, the Trump administration finally revealed their grand plan: to only withdraw less than half of all US troops stationed in Afghanistan and a minuscule five hundred troops from Iraq, bringing US occupation numbers to around twenty-five hundred in each country. US troops have been occupying Afghanistan for nearly twenty years, and US forces are in Iraq in defiance of millions of protesters calling for their expulsion since the illegal invasion until today.

Moreover, what about the thousands of private mercenaries that remain in both countries? See, Trump increased these killer contractor numbers by sixty-five percent. And right now there are actually more mercenaries in both countries than there are troops. This was his plan all along: to privatize the war and make it even less accountable than it already was. Once this new round of troops leave-, that could very well mean even more contractors take their place. And remember, thousands of troops will still remain.

Any amount is a crime, but twenty-five hundred is actually a lot. The ironic thing about this grand finale announcement by Trump is it's basically the Obama-Biden plan for Iraq and Afghanistan. Withdrawing more regular troops to rely primarily on special ops, CIA, and bombings is exactly what the Obama administration wanted. It only took Trump four years to arrive at the exact same policy. And a big problem with leaving a small number of troops anywhere is that it can easily become a large number of troops all over again. Just as Trump ramped up the residual forces Obama left, he leaves the same for Biden to do, too.

Our next update is yet another totally overblown and misreported story on troop withdrawals.

You may have heard it either celebrated or condemned that Trump is bringing all the troops home from Somalia. So, let's get to the bottom of what's really going on here. First of all, this plan is only a proposal at the moment. It hasn't even yet been ordered, so it might not happen at all. Second, and most importantly, if it does happen, the seven hundred troops in Somalia would not be brought home, nor would they stop combat operations on the ground in Somalia. The current plan being proposed would simply move those troops just slightly over its border to two neighboring countries, Kenya and Djibouti. Their explicit purpose there would still be to conduct ground combat in Somalia. They'll just have to travel a short distance to do so rather than being housed in the country. Not to mention that the US would still leave CIA forces in Somalia, as well as continued airstrikes and drone attacks in the country.

It is important to remember that it was Trump himself who implemented a gloves-off policy in Somalia and removed rules designed to protect civilians from collateral damage. In March 2017,