Obama Orders Combat Troops to Africa

President Obama just gave the nod in a letter to Congress to send 100 combat troops to the central Africa to help fight the Lord's Resistance Army. Obama frames the troop moves as a follow-up to a 2008 commitment and notes that the LRA "has murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women, and children in central Africa." The first group was deployed in Uganda on October 12 under orders to "act as advisors to partner forces that have the goal of removing from the battlefield Joseph Kony and other senior leadership of the LRA," and Obama makes it clear that they're not there to fight:

However, although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.