Pentagon officials are laying out a proposal on the strategy of America’s war in Somalia, which envisions the conflict against al-Shabaab continuing at least two more years of direct combat, involving both drone strikes and ground raids.

President Trump has been endorsing such plans throughout the year, signing off on increased autonomy for AFRICOM commanders in expanding the Somalia conflict, and setting the US on a pace to build up their presence, which has seen the first US casualties since the Black Hawk Down incident.

The goal of this new plan, with its vague “at least two more years” date, is to let escalation happen more or less unchecked for two more years, and then they’ll take stock of what’s happened and decide where to go from there.

Having already denied the massacre of Somali civilians in one of their ground raids this year, the officials are also expressing “near certainty” that no civilians will be killed in the many, many attacks the US will launch in Somalia in the years to come.