Obama Expands War With Al Qaeda to Include Shabab in Somalia

Luke Hartig was quoted in the New York Times about the United States expanding its war against Al Qaeda to include Shabab in Somalia.

“I think it’s a real tension,” said Luke Hartig, who was the senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council until this year. “We ask countries to go into the fight against our counterterrorism adversaries, but we have a stated policy of not using force against groups unless they pose a continuing and imminent threat to Americans.”

“At the same time, we don’t want to just be everyone’s air force,” said Mr. Hartig, who is now a fellow at New America, a think tank in Washington.