Hey everyone, this is Abby Martin. You're listening to the audio version of this episode,

which you can watch at YouTube.com slash Empire Files. But you can also listen to our new exclusive

podcast, only at patreon.com slash Empire Files, which makes all our free video content possible. This is Abby Martin with your Empire Update, wrapping up the last few weeks in U.S.

The Pentagon announced it's conducting a review of a 2020 attack at the Manda Bay military base in Kenya.

It was a highly successful operation by the militant group al-Shabaab, where three U.S. soldiers

were killed, as well as six American aircraft totally destroyed.

In Manda Bay, the U.S. military's focus is cross-border combat in its decades-long intervention

in neighboring Somalia,

which has caused chaos in the country and a political power vacuum that has in large part been

filled by reactionary armed organizations. The thing to watch will be the outcome of the Pentagon

review, and if it will be used to increase U.S. military buildup in operations in the region even more.

As General William Gaylor, who serves as Afrikaum's director of operations, said,

the Kenya attack, quote, solidifies the fact that what we're doing in Somalia is important.

Pretty twisted logic there, given that the rise of al-Shabaab has only been made possible

as a result of

U.S. military intervention in the first place.

Last month, the U.S. Army announced its focus on a whole new theater of war, the North Pole.

That's right. As climate change rapidly melt the Arctic, the Pentagon sees this newly opened up

area where the empire needs to plant its flag and maybe even fight a war over it.

The Army isn't even trying to hide its imperial nature. They actually titled this new strategy

regaining Arctic dominance. According to the Army Strategy Guide, the Arctic has the potential to become a

contested space where United States' great power rivals, Russia and China, seek to use military

...