Republican US Representative to Cameron: “He can kiss my ass”

Republican Representative in the US House of Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene, responded to British Foreign Secretary David Cameron's call for Congress to pass aid to Ukraine, saying: "He can kiss my ass."

In response to Cameron's statement in which he urged US lawmakers to pass a bill that includes support for Ukraine, and warned them against showing "the weakness shown against Hitler," Greene said: "I think he tried to compare us to Hitler as well, and if this is the language he wants to use, then I have nothing to say." for him".

She added: "I don't care what David Cameron says and I don't appreciate this kind of language. Cameron should worry about his country. And frankly, he could kiss my ass."

In an opinion piece published by The Hill, Cameron called on US lawmakers to pass the bill, which is "of great concern to the security of the United Kingdom and Europe."

Regarding Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Cameron wrote: “He has come back to ask for more, costing us more lives to stop his aggression. I do not want to show the weakness that was shown against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in 2008, when he invaded Georgia, or the uncertainty about the response.” In 2014, when he seized Crimea and a large part of Donbas, before returning to cost us more losses in the 2022 aggression.”

He added: "I want us to show the strength that has been displayed since 2022, as the West helped the Ukrainians liberate half the territory that Putin seized, all without losing any NATO personnel."

The British Sky News network said that Green's response to Cameron "did not bear any consideration or respect."

France's new arm in Africa What do you know about the International Defense Council group?

After a series of coups that ended its influence in a number of African countries, France is seeking to regain its lost interests in the African continent, through a new strategy based on private security companies, such as the International Defense Council group.

In February 2023, before embarking on a tour that led him to a number of African countries, the French President announced his country's new strategy for managing its interests in the African continent. This was after a series of coups that eliminated French influence in Mali and Burkina Faso, and also expanded the growing hostility towards France in the Sahel.

Macron said at the time that his country would “significantly” reduce its military activity in Africa, and that it would “end hosting regular military bases in Africa and instead establish academies co-managed by the French and African armies.”

But today it is clear that this “new form” of French partnerships with Africa is still similar to its traditional colonial template, after the task was assigned to private military companies affiliated with the Paris government, such as the Defense Council International (DCI) group, about which new reports revealed. It has become a new instrument of influence in the African continent.

A new French instrument of influence in Africa

In a recent report , the French newspaper Le Monde wrote that the Defense Council International (DCI) group has become the new instrument of French influence in Africa, coinciding with the expansion of popular hostility to the French military presence in the African continent, and Paris’s rush to rearrange its cards in the region. .

The International Defense Council Group is a semi-private company affiliated with the French government, as it owns 55% of its shares. Since its founding in 1972, the group has worked for the Ministry of the Armed Forces, monitoring French arms export contracts and transferring military knowledge related to the contracts, and 80% of its employees are former soldiers.

During a hearing before Parliament's Defense Committee on February 7, DCI CEO Samuel Fringant indicated that the group is redirecting its activity towards Africa. “The group is an instrument of influence for the Ministry of the Armed Forces, which guarantees a French presence, secret if necessary, including in very critical areas,” Frangan said.

Until 2018, the group’s activity was far from Africa, as it dealt with only three African countries, meaning no more than 0.1% of its total activity. But this reality changed completely during the year 2023, and activity in Africa was expanded to 14 countries, which is equivalent to 15% of the group’s total activity.

The expansion of the group's activities in Africa included winning a deal to supply drones to the air force in Benin, and supervising an intelligence training program for the security services there. The bill for these exercises, which will be paid by the Beninese government, amounts to approximately 11.7 million euros.

Since January, the group has also been assigned to various missions with the multinational hybrid force against Boko Haram, based in N'Djamena. On top of these tasks, DCI was tasked with rehabilitating the intelligence infrastructure of those forces.

The same French colonial context

Le Monde indicated that DCI's redirection of its activity towards Africa comes within the framework of the new French strategy in the region, which includes rearranging the form and numbers of its military presence there, so that the goal is to "compensate for the permanent presence with a rotation of employees, perhaps in the form of short-term missions." "With individuals who are not necessarily required to wear military clothing."

This is what French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu previously alluded to, in his speech to the weekly “Le Journal du Dimanche” 2022, saying: “It is clear that the review of our general strategy in Africa raises questions about all components of our presence, including the special forces.”

The French Minister of the Armed Forces explained at the time that his country is currently working to "organize the form of the current military bases that should maintain certain capabilities to protect our citizens, for example, but also to go more towards training local armies," while that presence "is no longer related to combating Terrorism instead of our partners, but rather by implementing it with them, alongside them.”

France's allies in ECOWAS quickly reacted to the decision and announced, in December of the same year, the decision to form a joint military force, in order to confront the threat of armed groups and combat the wave of coups.

During his conversation with TRT news at the time, Ismail Mohamed Taher, a university professor from Chad and a researcher in African affairs, said: “The recent decision taken by the ECOWAS group is a natural reaction to the developments taking place, most notably the withdrawal of French forces from Mali and its announcement of the end of Operation Barkhane.” .

Muhammad Taher added, “After France was placed in an embarrassing situation due to the high cost of the operation and its failure to achieve its objectives, therefore, France’s withdrawal from there entails that ECOWAS automatically forms that military force.”

During the last four years at least, the African Sahel countries have witnessed growing popular hostility toward France and its military presence there, which resulted in a series of coups that ended that presence in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Gabon.