Thoughts on the Protest Industrial Complex
By: Christopher Chantrill

Who can forget the wise words of President Eisenhower:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the protest-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Alas, it is the way of humans to forget the wise words of their ancestors.

But how did this happen? How did our society get captured by a brutal and oppressive protest industrial complex? Ernest Hemingway knew: “How did you go woke? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

I blame Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press. It was the flooding of Europe with cheap books replacing expensive parchment scrolls that prompted the rise of the educated class and led to the Age of Revolution. But then what? What happened after the educated class came to power in the 19th century?

The answer comes from Gaetano Mosca, member of the Italian school of elitism, and his book The Ruling Class. Ruling classes do not rule by power alone, he wrote, but invent a moral or legal basis for their power. Mosca called this a “political formula.”

Rulers never say: “I’m in it for me; get used to it, peasant.” Oh no. They are always serving the people, or the nation.

Our present rulers justify their power with their advocacy for marginalized communities and their benign support of movements of the oppressed demonstrating for justice.

But when did it start? With Babeuf, after the French Revolution? Saint-Simon, advocating for the needs of the industrial class? Fourier and his Phalanstères? Marx and his c*******m that would stop the “immiseration” of the workers?

Never mind: by the end of the 19th century all the right people were agreed that the way to raise up the workers was by pulling down the robber barons.

However, a curious thing happened on the way to the just society. In the cities of the United States, social scientists like William M. Tweed discovered that the lower class identified not so much by class as by race and national origin. So the educated class adapted its class ideology into an ethnic ideology.

That worked like gangbusters when it was time for the Democrats to dump the Southern white trash and fight for black civil rights and smash the r****t regime of Jim Crow.

But now I have to tell you a sad story. At some point in the aftermath of the movement for black civil rights, the mass movement of educated people fulfilled Eric Hoffer’s prophecy and became a racket.

Welcome to the Age of the F**e Victim, where the victims hail not from the suffering lower classes, but from the tippy-top educated class.

Seriously, can you blame our liberal friends? After a century and more of helping up the helpless, it was time to deal a few cards to themselves.

So our feminist friends, particularly educated-class women, decided they were victims. But I say they never were.

Likewise, gays have only experienced modest victimhood. P***e.com mentions the following gay Hollywood actors: Marlene Dietrich, Cesar Romero, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, Rock Hudson, Tallulah Bankhead, etc. Wow, imagine how they suffered!

And t*********rs? The only people suffering on the t*********r front seem to be women: on the sports field, in the public restroom, and J.K. Rowling.

When you think about it, it makes complete sense. Of course, our liberal friends would eventually decide that they were the real victims!

But the really delicious thing about fighting for the victims is you get to make like a r****r.

All down the ages, we are assured, helpless victims, faced with utter destitution, were forced to r**t in the streets. The Jacquerie, the Fronde, The Vendée, The Luddites, the Swing r**ts, the Whiskey r*******n. What fun they had! Why shouldn’t lefty students get in on the action!

Back in the day, upper-class youth put on fancy uniforms and flourished sabers and came home as war heroes. Why shouldn’t today’s tippy-top youth at least wear fashionable keffiyeh scarves just like genuine freedom fighters!

Of course, experts agree, all such protests are completely different than the J****** 6 armed i**********n, a day that will live in infamy.

The last time we had genuine protests for genuine victims was the civil rights era. And I am sure that those Freedom Rider activists had no interest in teaching southern white trash a lesson.

I feel a certain compassion for today’s tippy-top elite students. All their lives they have been carefully taught that the only way to live a meaningful life is as an Ally of the Oppressed against the White Oppressors -- or white r****ts, or imperialists, or settler-colonialists, or however the fashion changes. So what else can they do?

Last week, it seemed that America’s frat boys had had it with the keffiyeh fashion show. I wonder who wins in the battle of Fratties vs. Wokies?

Biden’s Missed Opportunity
Seth MandelMay 07, 2024

President Biden spoke late this morning at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on anti-Semitism, and while he missed the opportunity to deliver a still-needed rebuke to his own party, Biden did manage to avoid repeating the two biggest mistakes he’s made on this issue: the false equivalence and the “legitimate grievance” trap.

Last month, for example, he demonstrated both blunders in the same answer to a question about the anti-Semitic protesters at various U.S. college campuses: “I condemn the anti-semitic protests… I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

There, in one breath, the president gave equivalent condemnation of those committing anti-Jewish violence and those who lack sufficient empathy for the violent anti-Semitic protesters. Underlying it all is the idea that the protesters have a legitimate grievance with their victims.

It was the closest the president has come to his own “there are very fine people on both sides” moment.

Fact is, Jews are being openly harassed in the U.S. as retribution for something the protesters are falsely accusing the state of Israel of doing thousands of miles away. That’s it—that’s the whole scene. There is, in other words, no possible justification for the actions of these pro-Hamas extremists. There is no “both sides.”

Similarly, we all know exactly what Gaza has to do with the guy who threw a bottle at a Jewish man’s head at the Columbia gates and told him to “go back to Poland”: Nothing at all.

The examples go on for days, but the point is clear: Anti-Semitic violence as a response to the war in Gaza is indefensible on any level. Linking the two as some sort of cause-effect equation is nothing less than making anti-Semites’ arguments for them.

To his credit, this morning the president did not suggest otherwise. “I understand people have strong beliefs and deep convictions about the world. In America, we respect and protect the fundamental right to free speech, to debate and disagree, to protest peacefully, and make our voices heard. I understand, that’s America. But there is no place on any campus in America, any place in America, for anti-Semitism or h**e speech or threats of violence of any kind.”

It is crucial, in fact, in these situations to be dismissive of the protesters’ concerns. They have no bearing on today’s topic of Jew-hatred in the long shadow of the Shoah. An address on anti-Semitism in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day (or week; the day of observance was yesterday) is not a speech on geopolitics at the Council on Foreign Relations. Joe Biden’s genuine sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza is, also, irrelevant to his responsibility to properly communicate the lessons of the Holocaust.

And so it was a relief that Biden ignored the ongoing prosecution of the war without ignoring the war itself. Indeed, he correctly connected Hamas’s instigation of this war to the Holocaust itself. “This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust, and didn’t end with the Holocaust either, or even after our victory in World War II… That hatred was brought to life on October 7, 2023.”

The president expressed his outrage over Jews who feel they must hide their yarmulke under a baseball cap or their star of David pendant beneath their shirt. There is a war on open Jewish expression right here in the United States. It routinely takes violent forms. And it is currently being driven primarily by members of Biden’s party and political coalition, some of whom are members of the United States Congress.

And that is the one place the speech fell shy of its mark. Ilhan Omar visited the “tentifada” like a celebrity and suggested the Jews on campus who didn’t join the protests calling for the destruction of the Jewish state were “pro-genocide.” Bernie Sanders spends most of his time falsely accusing Israel of “deliberately starving children,” and called for the media to stop covering the anti-Semitism on campus and just cover alleged Israeli crimes instead. Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen in the Senate; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, Rashida Tlaib and host of others in the House—a growing number of the president’s fellow elected Democrats have an obsession with riling up crowds against the Jews.

Joe Biden was, we were told, the man for this moment because of his empathy. And there’s something to the idea that 2020 was the perfect time for a leader who had, tragically, much experience in picking up the pieces after a trauma and showing people how to put one foot in front of the other, even when it’s hard. But it’s not 2020. It’s 2024. And in 2024 the country desperately needs a leader who has no time for the self-justifications of the h**e merchants in his own party, the men and women who stand next to him and smile as he signs legislation or rallies v**ers knowing full well he won’t read them the r**t act.

We don’t need a fire chief who empathizes with fire. Just put out the flames, Mr. President.

Biden Regime Investigates Columbia’s Treatment of PALESTINIAN Students
Yet it’s Jewish students who are being attacked.

By: Robert Spencer

At Columbia University on Tuesday, pro-Hamas thugs assaulted a Jewish student. This took place as pro-Hamas protestors, many from outside the university, shattered the glass of the university’s main building and occupied it. All that happened months after Columbia administrators met with a student and heard him speak openly about murdering Jews.

Not only did they opt not to expel him and allowed him to remain on campus, but they watched as he became the leader of the encampment protests. Amid all this, it’s not surprising that the Biden regime’s Department of Education would be opening a civil rights investigation into Columbia’s mistreatment of students. There’s just one catch: the DoE isn’t investigating Columbia’s allowance of open and menacing Jew-hatred. The Biden wonks are examining Columbia’s alleged mistreatment of “Palestinian” students.

Yes, we have really descended to this level of absurdity. USA Today reported Friday that “the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on Thursday opened an investigation into Columbia University for how it’s treated Palestinian students and allies, lawyers said.” The Biden apparatchiks have filed a complaint that “alleges unequal treatment by Columbia administrators, including President Minouche Shafik.” Yes, this is the same Minouche Shafik about whom the Washington Post reportedFriday that “several Republican lawmakers have accused her of not taking rapid action against protesters and not doing enough to make Jewish students feel safe on campus.”

In the bizarro world of Palestinian Arab victimhood, however, it isn’t the Jewish students who feel unsafe. The USA Today report continues: “Four students and the student organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, told federal officials they experienced harassment, death threats and doxing on campus since the start of the war, according to the complaint filed by Palestine Legal, a legal aid organization.”

In a fine froth of indignation, Radhika Sainath of Palestine Legal complained: “For months, Columbia has not only failed to take action to protect Palestinian students and their allies speaking out for Palestinian freedom from r****t harassment and discrimination, but actively engaged in differential treatment. This investigation could not have come at a better time, as we just saw Columbia escalate its crackdown against Palestinian students and their allies by bringing in the NYPD to brutally arrest student protesters for the second time in less than two weeks.”

This civil rights complaint couldn’t possibly be more absurd, and in pursuing it, the Biden regime once again demonstrates its true colors and deep hatred of Israel. Are Jewish students breaking into and trashing university buildings? Are Jewish students assaulting Palestinian Arab students? There is abundant justification for a civil rights investigation of how Jewish students are being treated at Columbia, but the Students for Justice in Palestine and Palestine Legal know how to play the game: they know that victimhood is a coveted status in our sick society, and that consequently, being the first or loudest to claim that status is a quick pathway to preferential treatment and even pecuniary reward.

The Biden regime is acting on behalf of an extremely unsavory organization. Students for Justice in Palestine has no national leadership apparatus, but it does have a national website enunciating its motives and goals. The National Students for Justice in Palestine site states that it is “supporting over two hundred Palestine solidarity organizations across occupied Turtle Island, we aim to develop a student movement that is connected, disciplined, and equipped with the tools necessary achieve Palestinian liberation.”

“Occupied Turtle Island” refers to North America. Turtle Island is a name for the continent taken from Native American folklore, and of course it is “occupied” today by the evil white oppressors who are, in SJP’s view, also responsible for the supposed occupation and oppression of Palestinian territory. As absurd as this locution is, in light of the fact that no one aside from woke millennial L*****ts, not even Native Americans themselves, refers to North America as “Turtle Island,” the National SJP website uses the term consistently and without irony. It invites visitors to the site to “learn more about recent victories in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses across Turtle Island, and beyond!”

The site speaks more frequently and thoroughly about another land that exists only in fantasy and propaganda, although in this case that propaganda has been far more successful and is much more pervasive today: occupied Palestine. Despite the fact that no independent state of Palestine ever existed in history, and that the Palestinian nationality is an invention dating from the 1960s, the National SJP website maintains the fiction that it represents an endeavor to liberate an oppressed people.

SJP was founded at the University of California Berkeley in October 2000. It is the brainchild of a professor of “Islamophobia” named H**em Bazian, who has engaged in thuggery himself. He has openly called for an intifada, a violent uprising, not in Israel only, but in the United States as well. And regarding supporters of Israel, he has declared: “We need to harass them.”

In a sane society, H**em Bazian would under investigation himself. Instead, he is a respected professor at a prestigious university. He is a prime example of how our academic institutions have lost their way, deserve no public funding, and are in radical need of reform. What has happened of late at Columbia illustrates that anew. But also in radical need of reform is the Washington bureaucracy, which, instead of acting against the pro-Hamas thuggery at Columbia and other campuses, is aiding and abetting it.

Biden is nothing short of disheartening as well as showing himself to be a complete lurdan in his handling of these issues!

The Boy Scouts are causing controversy with their decision to rebrand, all in the name of “inclusivity.” On Wednesday, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced that the organization will officially change its name to “Scouting America.”

The BSA explained that this change reflects “the organization’s ongoing commitment to welcome every youth and family in America to experience the benefits of Scouting.” BSA CEO Roger Krone said, “Scouting America provides a welcoming, safe environment where youth can become the best version of themselves by learning from and respecting each other. I encourage everyone to join us and experience the benefits of Scouting.” Although the BSA notes that girls were welcomed into BSA ranks five years ago, the organization’s press release continues to use the term “youth,” instead of “boys and girls.”

In a video, Krone responded to critics of the BSA’s decision, explaining, “Membership is at historic lows. Part of my job is to reduce all the barriers I possibly can for people to accept us as an organization and to join.” He added that the name change “sends this really strong message to everyone in America that they can come to this program, they can bring their authentic self, they can be who they are, and they will be welcomed here.”

Commenting on the news, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said, “The Boy Scouts should have considered the Cicada Scouts for their new name, because they have become nothing more than a hollow shell of what they once were.” He added, “The Boy Scouts will now stand as a [stark] reminder of the cost of moral compromise.”

On Tuesday night’s episode of “Washington Watch,” Perkins expounded, “This was an organization for literally over a century, stood as an entity that helped train the next generation of boys. Its whole purpose when it started was to help boys become men, and eventually soldiers, to be able to defend the values that made Western civilization great.” He added, “It’s not what they are any longer,” warning, “Unfortunately, I actually think it is a [critical] message to the nation of what happens when you reject t***h.”

Joseph Backholm, FRC’s senior fellow for Biblical Worldview, commented to The Washington Stand, “Building anything meaningful requires compromise, cooperation, and sacrifice, but modern leftism sees these values as forms of oppression. Progressivism exists to critique and feels justified because everything manmade can be critiqued.” He continued, “The non-stop revolution makes leftism incapable of doing the things necessary to build a sustainable community, organization, university, or corporation, but it is perfectly suited to destroy any of those things through what is, in its most basic form, constant whining.”

Appearing with Perkins on “Washington Watch” on Tuesday night, FRC’s Senior Fellow for Education Studies Meg Kilgannon discussed the danger of eliminating essential distinctions between boys and girls. Frankly, she said, “The nation has come under a great cloud of confusion over [whether] there are boys or girls. And so, when children are going to school and saying, ‘You know, I think I might have been born in the wrong body … and the school feels compelled to affirm them in that … obviously there’s something very, very wrong.”

“It is the ultimate attack of demonic forces on the human person, to attack a growing child,” Kilgannon continued. “It’s the very work of adolescence to form your identity, to figure out what are you? What is God’s call on your life? What are you going to be when you grow up? What are you going to do with your life?” She added, “It’s your very core. The fact of whether or not you’re even a male or female, that’s truly debilitating. It doesn’t get much more basic than that.”

In 2013, Boy Scouts leadership v**ed to undo a longstanding policy barring membership to those who openly identify as homosexual, and moved in 2015 to formally permit openly-gay men to serve as adult leaders. In 2017, Boy Scouts leadership allowed biological girls who identify as t*********r to join its ranks, later opening the Boy Scouts to all girls and renaming the organization’s f**gship program, “Boy Scouting,” to “Scouting BSA.”

Franklin Graham, President of BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse, responded to the decision highlighting the Biblical foundation the Boy Scouts of America was founded upon.

“Talk about losing your way—that’s the Boy Scouts of America,” he wrote. “Their compass doesn’t point north anymore. “They want to be more ‘inclusive,’ so they’re changing their name to Scouting America. That won’t help. Being woke isn’t the need—staying focused and true to what God calls you to do is what’s important.”

“They should’ve just stuck with what they were founded to be 114 years ago,” Graham underscored. “The Boy Scouts Oath says, ‘On my honor I will do my best to do God’s will and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.’ It’s no surprise that thousands of parents are choosing other options like Trail Life USA which is a great Christ-centered alternative.”

Stop Caring
By: Kurt Schlichter

It’s become clear that America has a problem with caring. Americans care far too much. They need to care less about things that are pinko ruling class deems important. They need to actively not care.

Why limit our caring? Because caring gives your enemies leverage over you. Your enemies don’t care about you. Do you think those fat, ugly c*******ts infesting our college campuses care about you? They don’t, except to the extent they can hurt you. When they talk about “From the River to the Sea,” they’re not just talking about the Jordan to the Med – they’re talking about the Mississippi to the Pacific and the Atlantic, or they would if they knew any geography.

They don’t care about you. They want you dead. Their problem is they have no upper body strength and no guns. They can’t make you die or do anything else. The only way they can exercise power over you is by convincing you to exercise power over yourself.

That’s where your caring comes in. They use caring as leverage against you. It’s weaponized caring. They can’t do anything at all unless you care what they say and what they think and act accordingly. If you stop caring, you start winning.

Now, I’m not saying all caring is bad. You should care about your family, not in a Joe Biden way, but in a normal daddyshower-free way. You should care about your dogs, but not in a Kristi Noem way. The Bible instructs us to care about others. Look at the Good Samaritan story (Luke 10: 29-37). Note that the Samaritan story took place in ancient Israel, kind of establishing the whole Jewish indigenous thing, but that’s not the point here. The point is that Jesussays you should care about innocent people in need of help. The Samaritan came across a man who had been beaten and robbed, except on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and not a modern blue Democrat city. The Samaritan helped him out. The victim didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t ask for it. He suffered misfortune. It’s a good thing to care about people like that.

But it’s a bad thing to care too much about people who cause their own problems because that deprives them of the educational benefit of suffering the consequences of stupid decisions. And it’s also bad to care about people who use caring to beat your brains out.

We all have a limited caring bandwidth. We can’t care about everything, which the left understands and uses against us. We’re supposed to care about the things the c****es care about. We’re supposed to care about Gazans who are getting k**led because Gazans started a war instead of Nigerians who were getting k**led because they are Christians. Allowing the enemy to determine your hierarchy of caring allows them to set your agenda. Don’t allow them to do that.

A proper hierarchy of caring has God, Country, and Family right at the top. You should care about those things and care a lot. But after that, you have to make choices about what you will care about. Here are mine. Next in the hierarchy of caring come American civilians, and then come American soldiers and first responders. Why are these heroes second? Well, because they – and I – took an oath that does not expire to uphold the Constitution, meaning putting American citizens’ lives ahead of our own. So, if I have a choice between an American citizen and an American soldier taking a bullet, it’s got to be the soldier. That’s when we earn all that “Thank you for your service” stuff. But still, their pace in my hierarchy of caring still means a heck of a lot of caring.

Next come allied civilians—that’s because they are allies. Then come allied soldiers and first responders. After that come other civilians. Then come enemy civilians—yes, I care less about the lives of enemy civilians than I do about American and Allied civilians and soldiers. You have correctly assessed my relative levels of caring. I know it will stun moral illiterates that I will take my own side in a conflict, but I do.

And after that comes…nothing. I don’t care about enemy combatants – the Hamas semihumans do not deserve the title “soldiers.” Not a bit. I actively want bad things to happen to them.

So, if somebody asks me why I don’t care enough about the Gazan people who are suffering because of the war the Gazans started, that’s because, as enemy civilians, they are near the bottom of my hierarchy of caring. How do I know they are our enemy? I listen to them.

It’s unreasonable to expect me to care much about the enemy, not simply because they are the enemy but because one can only care so much. Again, you only have so much caring bandwidth. You can’t care about everything, and you certainly can’t care about everything equally. Adults distinguish between things. The left distinguishes between things. My life and yours are right at the bottom of their hierarchy of caring. The l*****ts don’t care if we think that’s wrong. Why should we care what they think?

And here’s another rule of caring – I can’t care more about strangers than the people who have a duty to care about them do. Let’s take the Gazans again, please. Gazan children are getting hurt in a war that their parents and tribe started and still perpetuate by not surrendering and giving up their hostages, yet I’m expected to care a lotabout them. But why am I expected to care about them more than their parents and their tribe do? If they cared, they would surrender, release the hostages, and better yet, have never started this war in the first place. A parent’s duty is to care about his own children. I’m not sure how anyone really expects me to care about somebody else’s children more than the children’s parents do, but I’m not going to. And no amount of moral intimidation is going to make me.

The fact is that the Gazans brought on their own pain, and their problem is their problem, not mine. Even if I could do something about it, other than end it sooner by encouraging Israel to get on with it and wipe out these Hamas bastards, it is not my moral duty to do so. I didn’t create the problem. I don’t control the solution, or at least one that’s acceptable to me. I suppose we could cut Israel off from arms and allow the Gazans to murder them all, but that’s not going to happen. So, I guess the Gazans are screwed until they decide to change how they do business. If they don’t care enough about their own fate to do that, I don’t see why I’m required to compensate by caring much more about their fate than they do. And I don’t.

Your caring is yours. You get to decide what you care about, not some bloated pierced freak working out their daddy issues on the campus quad. And if they don’t like that, guess what? I don’t care.

Genesis 15:1 – After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.’

A hymn relating to the cited verse.

The Firm Foundation
by: R. Keen

1 How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in God's excellent Word!
What more can be said than to you God hath said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

2 "Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

3 "When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be near thee, thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

4 "When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

5 "The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."

An interesting Bible Fact..

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-troops-enter-base-housing-us-military-in-niger-us-official-says/ar-AA1o68yn

Russian troops enter base housing US military in Niger, US official says
Story by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian military personnel have entered an air base in Niger that is hosting U.S. troops, a senior U.S. defense official told Reuters, a move that follows a decision by Niger's junta to expel U.S. forces.

The military officers ruling the West African nation have told the U.S. to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel from the country, which until a c**p last year had been a key partner for Washington's fight against insurgents who have k**led thousands of people and displaced millions more.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russian forces were not mingling with U.S. troops but were using a separate hangar at Airbase 101, which is next to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger's capital.

The move by Russia's military, which Reuters was the first to report, puts U.S. and Russian troops in close proximity at a time when the nations' military and diplomatic rivalry is increasingly acrimonious over the conflict in Ukraine.

It also raises questions about the fate of U.S. installations in the country following a withdrawal.

"(The situation) is not great but in the short-term manageable," the official said.

Asked about the Reuters report, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin played down any risk to American troops or the chance that Russian troops might get close to U.S. military hardware.

"The Russians are in a separate compound and don't have access to U.S. forces or access to our equipment," Austin told a press conference in Honolulu.

"I'm always focused on the safety and protection of our troops ... But right now, I don't see a significant issue here in terms of our force protection."

The Nigerien and Russian embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. and its allies have been forced to move troops out of a number of African countries following c**ps that brought to power groups eager to distance themselves from Western governments. In addition to the impending departure from Niger, U.S. troops have also left Chad in recent days, while French forces have been kicked out of Mali and Burkina Faso.

At the same time, Russia is seeking to strengthen relations with African nations, pitching Moscow as a friendly country with no colonial baggage in the continent.

Mali, for example, has in recent years become one of Russia's closest African allies, with the Wagner Group mercenary force deploying there to fight jihadist insurgents.

Russia has described relations with the United States as "below zero" because of U.S. military and financial aid for Ukraine in its effort to defend against invading Russian forces.

The U.S. official said Nigerien authorities had told President Joe Biden's administration that about 60 Russian military personnel would be in Niger, but the official could not verify that number.

After the c**p, the U.S. military moved some of its forces in Niger from Airbase 101 to Airbase 201 in the city of Agadez. It was not immediately clear what U.S. military equipment remained at Airbase 101.

The United States built Airbase 201 in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million. Since 2018 it has been used to target Islamic State and al Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) fighters with armed drones.

Washington is concerned about Islamic militants in the Sahel region, who may be able to expand without the presence of U.S. forces and intelligence capabilities.

Niger's move to ask for the removal of U.S. troops came after a meeting in Niamey in mid-March, when senior U.S. officials raised concerns including the expected arrival of Russia forces and reports of Iran seeking raw materials in the country, including uranium.

While the U.S. message to Nigerien officials was not an ultimatum, the official said, it was made clear U.S. forces could not be on a base with Russian forces.

"They did not take that well," the official said.

A two-star U.S. general has been sent to Niger to try and arrange a professional and responsible withdrawal.

While no decisions have been taken on the future of U.S. troops in Niger, the official said the plan was for them to return to U.S. Africa Command's home bases, located in Germany.

(This story has been refiled to insert the dropped word 'official' in paragraph 1)
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Writing by Idrees Ali; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Clarence Fernandez)

Hopefully, US troops are systematically destroying equipment as opposed to Afghanistan.

The operative word about the ”two star general is ”try. Maybe he will use his brain and ask senior NCOs the ”responsible, make that effective, way to withdraw.