Another special Marine task force has rotated through the Middle East 10 times in the past six years, training with Jordanian, Lebanese and Saudi forces and fielding two companies in Syria in 2018. Charging NATO allies such as Spain for basing could throw US crisis response in North Africa into peril, experts say, upsetting partners that provide intelligence and refueling support to American forces. “By the time the [Marine Air-Ground Task Force] got into Djibouti, Uganda didn’t like that footprint going into South Sudan,” said Bolduc, who supervised the South Sudan evacuation in 2016. She added, “The issue with Benghazi was the whole thing was over in a matter of a few hours. If you know instantly what’s going on, the minute it starts to happen you’re an eight-hour plane flight away.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 12, 2019 16:57 UTC