antiwar | But Patrick Meehan, chairman of the US Congressional committee that
drew up the report, said “While I recognize there is little evidence at
this moment to suggest Boko Haram is planning attacks against the [US]
homeland, lack of evidence does not mean it cannot happen.”
Washington’s interest in Africa goes back at least to 2007, when the
Pentagon’s AFRICOM was formed, long before rebels in Libya or militants
in Mali were a threats to exaggerate.
The dominant way of thinking in Washington is that the US should be
involved in every corner of the planet, and the pressure to always “do
something” is intense.
But as Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations recently commented
with regards to the intervention in Mali, “Some things that happen on
the other 94% of the earth that isn’t the US, has nothing to do with the
US, nor requires a US response.”
