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Bush's Africa Burden
The white house scramble for Africa came to an end this week -- symbolically, at least. During his tour of the continent, President Bush seized every opportunity to boast of his innovative approaches to African health and development issues. But he kept strangely silent about what may be his administration's most enduring legacy for Africa: AFRICOM, the most significant U.S. foreign and military policy innovation you've probably never heard of.
AFRICOM stands for the U.S. Africa Command, created by presidential order in February 2007. On the surface, AFRICOM doesn't sound like anything special -- the U.S. already has several military commands organized geographically: PACCOM (Pacific Command), CENTCOM (Central Command) and EUCOM (European Command), so why not AFRICOM? But unlike the others, AFRICOM has the promotion of stability as its primary mission. It's designed, as the president put it, "to enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and to promote the ... development of health, education, democracy and economic growth."
Yes, you read that right: The Defense Department has a new military command dedicated, more or less, to establishing peace, love and understanding in Africa. Don't giggle or sneer; they're serious. AFRICOM will bring together military personnel with civilian employees from the State Department, the USAID and other U.S. agencies, and most U.S. humanitarian work in Africa will be coordinated through AFRICOM.
Already, U.S. military personnel are delivering supplies to refugees in Chad, training African peacekeeping forces and helping Congolese military officials develop protocols for prosecuting sex crimes. Also under AFRICOM auspices, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be training Africans to monitor their fishing industry, the USAID is delivering meals in Ghana, Navy personnel are painting classrooms in Senegal and Army and Air Force medical personnel are holding exchanges with their counterparts from Djibouti.
So what's not to love about AFRICOM? And on a trip during which he missed no other opportunities to seize a little credit, why wasn't the president touting AFRICOM?
The trouble with AFRICOM is that its very ambition has left many observers queasy, as well as intrigued.
In some ways, the creation of AFRICOM merely represents the long-overdue recognition, on the part of the White House and the Defense Department, that global poverty, development, democracy and the rule of law should all be seen as security issues for the U.S. In this interconnected world, not even the most hard-nosed, coldhearted superpower can afford to ignore the poorest, weakest states or desperate, hopeless people.
Where governance structures are weak and people are desperate, terrorists and criminal networks can easily take root. So too can deadly diseases that, with the help of air travel, can reach our First World enclaves in a few hours. Africa also produces 30% of the world's uranium supply and 20% of its total petroleum. If instability disrupts these supplies -- or if bad actors seize control of them -- we'll all suffer.
AFRICOM takes seriously the interconnected nature of modern security threats and responds by seeking to seamlessly merge both the "hard" and "soft" components of U.S. power. Through AFRICOM, soldiers and diplomats, doctors and teachers, police officers and engineers will work hand in hand to promote the U.S. objective of advancing stability in Africa.
But.
Innovative though it may be, it also has a familiar ring to it, one that isn't reassuring to many African ears. It's a Kipling-esque ring, perhaps: something to do with the White Man's Burden, something that reminds many Africanists of the bad old days of colonialism, when European imperial powers also seamlessly merged their military, economic, political and diplomatic forces to dominate and exploit Africa's people and resources.
Promoting African peace, democracy and development are all good things, but the U.S. efforts might be more palatable if the velvet glove handing out foreign aid weren't stretched so obviously over the iron fist of the world's most lethal war-fighting machine. To skeptics, AFRICOM's creation suggests that the scramble for Africa isn't over, it's just entering a new phase, as the U.S. seeks to keep Africa stable -- on U.S. terms.
That's why the White House has found itself playing defense on AFRICOM, with Bush carefully avoiding mention of it for most of his trip. By Wednesday, though, he was finally forced to address "a controversial subject brewing around that's not very well understood."
"I want to dispel the notion that all of a sudden America is bringing all kinds of military to Africa," Bush told an audience in Ghana. "It's just simply not true."
Of course not.
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times
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14 Comments so far
Show All>"to enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and to promote the … development of health, education, democracy and economic growth."<
What baloney. The main reason for the existence of AFRICOM is to prevent nations such as Russia, the EU, China and India from gaining a foothold on the continent. It's the Great Game all over again. Ironically, the money to pay for this latest imperial expansion will be borrowed from these very same nations, further undermining our economy in the long run.
The sad thing is that the writer does not question the basic assumptions underlying the existence of the various COMS, and why other nations do not have a a similar system of military commands straddling the globe. As long as even "progressives" believe that the United States has some sort of divine mission to save the world, we'll watch helplessly as democracy and progress here at home are undermined in an increasingly futile bid to cling to our fading military power abroad. We can no longer afford to be an empire, even a relatively benign one.
The Black Man's burden, Bush Meat.
And the best part is Africom's HQ is in Stuttgart, Germany. US African military policy led from Europe. Colonialism at its most surreal.
whatfools - we don't have a *leg to stand on, since usurper el tormento_en_jeffe_cerveza.
*No dark meat
so while meals are being delivered and classrooms are being painted, where's the cia in all of this? oh, undercover. silly me.
two sentences devoted to the real story. 30% uranium, 20% petroleum. this author suggests that we'll all suffer should "bad actors" gain control of these resources. does the author really think we're in africa to make sure "bad actors" don't horn in on these resources? does she really know who the bad actors are? does she really think that the "most hard-nosed, cold hearted superpower" gives a rat's ass about the "poorest, weakest states or desperate, hopeless people." are there flowers being painted in the classrooms?
has she seen images from iraq lately? ask them what they think about peace and democracy and development (for sake of argument, let's exclude the green zone in any discussion).
this is not about promoting peace, democracy and development. it is nothing more than yet another smoke screen brought to that part of the world by this administration, with a smirk and a sneer plastered across a couple of beady-eyed faces.
once again, cd, what's going on with the writers?
In a nation-state world, we will do whatever appears necessary for our nation's survival. In a resource scarce world we will keep on this path until the last tree is felled, the last barrel of oil combusted, and the last wild animal gutted. The planet would have been better off without our having evolved even though we at times we try to do good and mean well despite greed and arrogance. We really should exit more gracefully by not having children.
AFRICOM = the new East India Trading Company
It appears the big bad wolf is trying to dress himself up as a saint in frilly lace who paints classrooms in his spare time.
We might wonder whether AFRICOM should be spelt AFRICON.
http://www.nathanielturner.com/africomplotthickens.htm
The bogus Global War on Terrorism provides the pretext for AFRICOM. AFRICOM will be the official US military presence on the continent, a rapid deployment force able to go anywhere to put their foots on the necks of uncooperative or recalcitrant natives the corporate media will brand as "terrorists" simply for having the temerity to demand the right of self-determination and who are willing to fight for their own country! Make no mistake about it, the multi-national corporations already have their private mercenaries on set as protection, but to make sure they can extract and exploit Africa's resources at will, they will need the protection and might of Uncle Sam's killers. Resources are at the heart of the conflicts throughout Africa.
Oh no! Please, if we must go into Africa, wait until the next President is in office.
The United States will soon establish permanent military bases in sub-Saharan Africa. An alarming step forward in the militarization of the African continent, the US Africa Command (Africom) will oversee all US military and security interests throughout the region, excluding Egypt.
Its first commander, General William Ward, told the Senate Armed Services committee that Africom would first seek "African solutions to African problems." Policmakers seem to have forgotten the legacy of US intervention in Africa. During the cold war, African nations were used as pawns in postcolonial proxy wars, an experience that had a devastating impact on African democracy, peace and development. In the past, Washington has aided reactionary African factions that have carried out atrocities against civilians. An increased US military presence in Africa will likely follow this pattern of extracting resources while aiding factions in some of their bloodiest conflicts, thus further destabilizing the region.
American policy makers should be mindful that South Africa, whose citizens overthrew the US-supported apartheid regime, opposes Africom. In addition, Nigeria and the fourteen-nation Southern Africa Development Community resist Africom. These forces should be joined by other African governments and citizens around the world to develop Africa's own strong, effective and timely security and economic capacities.
Said they would be spraying INSIDE peoples houses to fight mosquito born illnesses. Spose they will wear respirators?
Maybe they will finish off what Africans AIDS didn't?
The Devil has personally visited Africa.
God has truly blessed and made rich, the African continent. Diamonds, Gold, Silver, Oil, Oil, Oil, Gas, Copper, Cadmium,Ivory, Zinc Platinum,Rubies, Art, Music, Medicines and other commodities too numerous to mention are her Riches.
The Americans, French, Britians, Dutch,Spanish, Chinese, and many other nations economies are founded upon the commodities of the African Continent.
Ironically all of these other nations, continually relying on these commodities, have made the African Continent one of the poorest on Earth. Disease and Death seem to be the by-products of foreign interest on the Continent.
I am estounded how the African-American in the United states, decendents of Slaves from Afrca cannot see what these evil Gentiles of America, France, Spain, Italy,Europe,Saudi Arabia are doing in Africa.
The African in America has sold his soul. No matter how many Oscars you win, how many movies you make, how many touchdowns, how many points, how many songs, you owe an allegiance to Africa. If we would take our wealth back to the Continent, we shall strengthen our position on both continents. The Ego and division amoung people of color are devastating.
Remember Darfur, South Africa, Rowanda,Kenya,Somolia, Nigeria, Liberia, Libya,Ghana,Zambia,Tanzinia, Mozambique, Morrocco and many other countries on the Great Continent.
Where is their Sovereignty? Who has subbornated them?
There is always an agenda when Bush, Cheney, Blair, and others are involved. Bush is not a help in this region.
Control of the OIL and other riches is his motive.
We will bring democracy and freedom to them just like we did to Iraq. They will greet us as liberators.
AFRICOM: King Leopold lives on.