Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has issued a blockbuster report about a situation unfolding in Africa right now. Joe Biden and his incompetent buffoon of a Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, have left 1,100 American soldiers stranded in Niger. You know, the country that fell to a military coup last summer because the Biden regime is a total failure at foreign policy in every possible way.

According to Gaetz, these soldiers are no longer receiving any logistical support. They’re trapped, can’t get medicine, basic supplies, or even clean drinking water to the troops—and Biden has been covering this up from Congress and the American people.

According to Gaetz’s report, the troops are trapped at Air Base 101 (AB101) in Niamey, the capital city of Niger. The US had been using that base for years for operations against Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, Boko Haram, and other Islamic terrorist groups throughout Africa.

The base is part of the 768th Expeditionary Airbase Squadron, which consists of active duty and Reserve troops, Air National Guard, US Special Forces, and other personnel.

The base has been an important hub for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions against Islamic terror groups for years. The whole reason why we have a military base there was because previous administrations managed to maintain friendly diplomatic relations with the government of Niger. In early 2023, Anthony Blinken praised the government of Niger as “a model of resilience, a model of democracy, a model of cooperation.”

Then in July of last year, the country suddenly fell to a military coup, which our incompetent intelligence services and Anthony Blinken completely failed to see coming. Have we ever had a more incompetent Secretary of State than Anthony Blinken? Does anyone else even come close?

The military junta that has taken over Niger hates the United States and wants our troops out. Biden has refused to pull the troops out, because he didn’t want another disastrous foreign policy failure like Afghanistan making headlines. Now the troops are trapped and surrounded by hostile belligerents. Short of launching some sort of hostile military intervention in the capital city of Niger, we can’t even get the troops out now!

“Our troops are currently sitting on a powder keg caused by political indecision at the top of the Department of State and Department of Defense,” says the report that Gaetz’s office released this week.

“With a military junta in charge — who detests our presence and considers us unserious and predatory — the situation seems to be setting the groundwork for catastrophic diplomatic collapse like we saw during the 2012 Benghazi attack. Additionally, these troops are already running short on necessary, life-saving supplies, such as blood and medications.”

Benghazi is a good comparison. So is Black Hawk Down. Both of those debacles occurred under Democrat administrations when the professional policy wonks in Washington, DC refused to listen to the intelligence coming from the troops and commanders on the ground.

The troops are currently trapped and surrounded by an entire city of belligerents that hates them. Every single household in Niamey has at least one dusty old AK-47 in the closet, a couple of magazines, and the willingness to go shoot at American soldiers if things get exciting.

After weeks of pleading with the Department of Defense and the State Department to get them out, some of the soldiers who are from Matt Gaetz’s district reached out to him to beg for help.

The situation in Niger has deteriorated so badly on the watch of Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken that they can’t conduct diplomatic overflights to drop supplies to the soldiers. They don’t have clean drinking water. They don’t have fresh blood supplies, which will be critically necessary if this powder keg explodes into a huge battle.

Troops who were supposed to rotate out of the base months ago are still stuck there, with their anxious family members wondering why they haven’t come home yet. Biden hasn’t even told the families what’s going on!

This could end up being far worse than the Afghanistan debacle before it’s over.

Here is Matt Gaetz on the House floor this week as he exposed this coverup to Congress and the American people: