Obamas Quagmires of Libya, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan

[Weatherman2020]

Obama declared Iraq and Afghanistan to be stable and withdrew the troops. Libya and Sudan were no threat to America yet he started a war with their sovereign governments.
And here we are today with American troops fighting combat in those four nations with no end in sight nor even a withdrawal strategy. Just keep trickling more and more American soldiers in.

 

[waltky]

Aid blocked in So. Sudan...

South Sudan starves as aid blocked, money spent on fighting
Oct 14,`16) -- The mother faced an anguished decision: choosing which of her children to save. With hunger gripping this remote region of South Sudan, Elizabeth Athiel could either get urgent medical attention for her 8-month-old daughter, Anger, or make sure her other five children could eat.

The little girl was shockingly thin, but the medical clinic was a half-day's walk away, and she would have to wait there for days until recovery. "I can't leave the others alone here," Athiel said, holding Anger in her arms. The baby is another casualty of South Sudan's civil war - in a part of the country that hasn't even seen fighting. Here in the government stronghold of Northern Bahr el Ghazal region, there are indications of famine. One-third of children in the region are estimated to be acutely malnourished. If resources remain limited, more children will die, said Mahimbo Mdoe, the UNICEF representative in South Sudan.

The food crisis is evidence of how the conflict has devastated South Sudan's ability to function. Since December 2013, tens of thousands of people have been killed. More than one million refugees have fled. The U.N. calls South Sudan one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Even as President Salva Kiir and his government have repeatedly promised full humanitarian access to this and other areas, South Sudanese officials have restricted aid amid hostility at the international community over its attempts to calm the fighting and protect civilians.

Elizabeth Athiel holds her 8-month-old malnourished daughter Anger, at a UNICEF clinic in Aweil, South Sudan. Between 4 and 5 million people are at risk of death if they do not receive food assistance, according to the World Food Program, and even as the government has repeatedly promised full humanitarian access to this and other areas, South Sudanese officials have restricted aid amid their hostility at the international community.​

During a visit by The Associated Press to Aweil in mid-September, aid airdrops by the World Food Program had been suspended because the government imposed what it called additional security requirements. They later resumed but were suspended again this week. Minister of Information Michael Makuei recently told reporters that WFP had been "intransigent" with his government. "Did they come here for humanitarian services? They came there for their own ulterior objectives," Makuei said, reflecting some officials' view that the U.N., with its peacekeeping mission and aid agencies, had too much authority.

Meanwhile, South Sudan's government spends 44 percent of its budget on military and security, but just 11 percent on health, education and humanitarian affairs, according to the finance ministry. "The government knows that it doesn't have to spend money on health care and education because the international community is always going to do it for them, and they can spend it on weapons instead," one diplomat said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. South Sudan has long suffered from periods of hunger. The fighting has only made it worse.

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