I don’t know if this Washington Post story is balanced but if it is, it presents something new to worry about. One of the most terrifying aspects of a Donald Trump second term is the prospect of a major terrorist attack — and what he would do in return. By building up the military to an absurd level, denigrating diplomacy and alliances and then basically inviting groups like these to launch new attacks,
Groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, at war with each other in the Middle East, are working together to take control of territory across a vast stretch of West Africa, U.S. and local officials say, sparking fears the regional threat could grow into a global crisis.
Fighters appear to be coordinating attacks and carving out mutually agreed-upon areas of influence in the Sahel, the strip of land beneath the Sahara desert. The rural territory at risk is so large it could “fit multiple Afghanistans and Iraqs,” said Brig. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, head of the U.S. military’s Special Operations arm in Africa.
“What we’ve seen is not just random acts of violence under a terrorist banner but a deliberate campaign that is trying to bring these various groups under a common cause,” he said. “That larger effort then poses a threat to the United States.”
The militants have wielded increasingly sophisticated tactics in recent months as they have rooted deeper into Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, ambushing army bases and dominating villages with surprising force, according to interviews with more than a dozen senior officials and military leaders from the United States, France and West Africa.
The groups are not declaring “caliphates” to avoid scrutiny from the West, officials said, buying time to train, gather force and plot attacks that could ultimately reach major international targets.
They know that Donald Trump is very proud of having eliminated “the caliphate” and so they aren’t using that word.
Maybe this is just hype. I hope so. And I don’t pretend to have the answer to what to do about the threat other than I know Trump is the worst person in the world to deal with it.