do an internal look at ourselves and find out what is it that we did, what could we do better and then make changes based on what i would consider an after action review. so i think that s fair. the other issue is there are some in african command and some here in the pentagon who think the special forces are taking too many risks over there. yeah, tom, i think that would be speculation. in other words, here s what i m very clear on, i m very clear on the framework within which this operation took place. in other words, what did their orders say? i don t have any indication right now to believe or to know that they did anything other than operate within the orders that they were given. that s what the investigation s all about. so i think anyone that speculates about what special operations forces did or didn t do is doing exactly that, they re speculating. in general, special operators in africa are maybe taking too many risks. that s the sense of some people in this billing and
going to happen? yeah, i don t have the details of that. you know, i don t know whether it was intended that they would how long it was going to take if they had plans to stay overnight. just to be clear, i think the probably more accurate description than stayed overnight was caught a couple of hours of sleep after the third and before they completed their mission on the fourth. is there an investigation beyond the troop deaths and what s the investigation of the fbi? an investigation being conducted by the general officer at the united states africa command into the incident itself. that s the only investigation with the u.s. military. with regard to the fbi, it s very formal for them in counterterrorism operations to conduct investigations, get information, intelligence, that may be related to threats to the united states and i believe that s the capacity in which the fbi is conducting an investigation right now. a quick follow-up on whether or not the troops were wearing
via africom issued a long statement explaining why it is that the u.s. is in niger. i would point out general dunford said why it is that u.s. forces are there. he talked about how with a relatively small footprint the u.s. forces could enable local forces to do a lot more. you ll hear more about that and how america first might not really work. neil: that was the goal at the time dating back to 2013 when these u.s. troops first arrived to help the french military running an operation and the early elements of al-quaida. now people are aware how far and widespread this sort of tactical strategy goes even in reaches of the world we didn t think the average american outside if good colonel here did not know. that does ring the mission cream, americans get worried what are your thoughts? i thought general dunford was
forward more in africom. can you do that without sending more equipment isr over there. fair question. and i think i would distinguish between what does the commander africom need to do the full range of nations he believes need to be done, and what missions are being done with the equipment available? i would tell you that general walthauser may need more capability to do more mission or more expansive mission, the responsibility of commanders is to employ the force within the resources that they have available. so we shouldn t confuse the need for more capability to expand the mission with what capabilities are provided to a particular unit at a particular time if you understand the distinction i m trying to make. a particular question that still needs to be answered absolutely. there s two reasons to do the investigation. one reason is to make sure that we inform the families, the american people and the congress, of course.
africom. can you do that without sending more equipment isr over there? fair question. i think i would distinguish between what does the commander africom need to do the full range of missions that he needs to be done and what missions are being done with the equipment available. i ll tell you while the general may need more capability to do more mission or more expansive mission, the responsibility of commanders is to employ the force within the resources that they have available. we shouldn t confuse the need for more capability to expand the mission with what capabilities are provided to a particular unit at a particular time if you understand the distinction. the particular question still absolutely. look, there s two reasons to do the investigation. one reason is to make sure that we inform the families, the american people. and the congress, of course. the second is every time something like this happens, we