Withdrawal from Niger Will Be a Good Thing for the U.S.

The “war on terror” model that the U.S. exported to the region has been a disaster for these nations.

The Biden administration finally faced reality and agreed to withdraw U.S. troops from Niger after their post-coup junta government had demanded the troops’ removal:

The United States informed the government of Niger on Friday that it agreed to its request to withdraw U.S. troops from the West African country, said three U.S. officials, a move the Biden administration had resisted and one that will transform Washington’s counterterrorism posture in the region.

The U.S. should have withdrawn its troops from Niger last year after the coup happened, but it is good that they are being pulled out. Continuing the mission was no longer tenable after the junta voided Niger’s agreement with Washington and declared the U.S. presence illegal. Unlike the open-ended, unnecessary deployments in Iraq and Syria, this was a situation where the U.S. couldn’t just ignore the protests of the local government. According to a whistleblower report, U.S. troops weren’t able to operate in the country after the coup, and they also couldn’t return home when they were scheduled to leave.

The Wall Street Journal report on the eviction claimed that it was “driving the final nail in the coffin of American strategy to defeat a violent Islamist insurgency overrunning the heart of western Africa.” Left unacknowledged in the report is that the “strategy” had been failing for years.