Portside

Since 9/11, the Pentagon has increasingly viewed the African continent as a place with a multitude of problems that can only be remedied by military means. But, despite billions of dollars in aid and training missions and joint exercises conducted by America’s most elite troops, West African nations find themselves chronically imperiled by a plethora of insurgent groups and members of their own armed forces, many of whom were trained by these same U.S. special forces.

Fourteen years after 9/11, the World Trade Center Health Program is scheduled to end next month. And the Victim Compensation Fund is set to expire in October 2016. Unless Congress pledges more money, funding for both programs will end just as scientists and doctors are on the verge of finding a definitive link between the incident and various cancers. Not only would 9/11-related cancer treatment and compensation end, but all research would be discontinued as well.