Is Obama Moving the ‘War on Terror’ to Africa?
By Zoë Carpenter
May 31 2014 " <
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/> ICH" - "
<
http://www.thenation.com/blog/180043/obama-moving-war-terror-africa> The
Nation" - Despite talk of a pivot to Asia, the US military’s gaze has
settled on Africa. That isn’t news for anyone who has followed the expansion
of US Africa Command (AFRICOM) on the continent. But it’s a decisive shift
that until now US officials have been
<
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram:_nick_turse,_africom_becomes
_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22/> loath to acknowledge.
The veil lifted slightly on Wednesday when President Obama asked Congress
for $5 billion to train and equip foreign governments for counterterrorism
activities. Most of the countries he cited are in northern Africa, including
Somalia, Libya and Mali. US Special Operations are
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/world/africa/us-trains-african-commandos-
to-fight-terrorism.html> reportedly already training new counterterrorism
units in Libya and Mali, as well as Niger and Mauritania.
“Today’s principal threat no longer comes from a centralized Al Qaeda
leadership. Instead, it comes from decentralized Al Qaeda affiliates and
extremists, many with agendas focused in the countries where they operate,”
Obama said. “We need a strategy that matches this diffuse threat; one that
expands our reach without sending forces that stretch our military thin, or
stir up local resentments.”
The Counter-Terrorism Partnerships Fund, as the administration dubbed the
program, would apparently add more money and a new name to an existing slate
of <
http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do/security-cooperation-programs>
security cooperation programs. Over the last few years the United States has
spent millions
<
http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do/security-cooperation-programs> training
proxy forces to combat local insurgents in Africa; one example is a $500
million operation called the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative that
provides training and equipment to ten African partners.
According to the journalist Nick Turse, who has covered AFRICOM extensively
for TomDispatch, the number of operations, programs and missions conducted
by the US military in Africa has
<
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175823/tomgram:_nick_turse,_america's_non-s
top_ops_in_africa/> increased by more than 200 percent since the command was
established in 2008. In 2012 alone the United States
<
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/nick_turse_blowback_central>
plannedfourteen major training operations across the continent, including in
Mali, Morocco, Uganda, Botswana, Lesotho, Senegal and Nigeria.
“AFRICOM talks about this like it’s small-scale and low-key to the public,
but when you listen to what they’re saying in private it’s really
startling,” Turse told me. He’s heard officers
<
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram:_nick_turse,_africom's_gigan
tic_%22small_footprint%2522> refer to Africa as “the battlefield of
tomorrow, today.” One AFRICOM official
<
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram:_nick_turse,_africom_becomes
_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22/> acknowledged to a room full of
private contractors that the command had “shifted from our original intent
of being a more congenial combatant command to an actual war-fighting
combatant command.”
Counterterrorism cooperation sounds innocuous enough, particularly when
presented rhetorically as an alternative to ground wars. However
light-footed, the strategy Obama made explicit on Wednesday nevertheless
endorses expanded US military activity on the continent. Unfortunately, the
president was not so much
<
https://twitter.com/Max_Fisher/status/471698166593900544> signaling the end
of the era of military adventurism as directing it towards a new arena in
fresh packaging. And as with more conventional military endeavors, deeper
involvement in Africa carries risks of blowback, particularly by drawing
large militant networks into local conflicts.
Recent experiences in Libya and Mali—two countries that Obama cited on
Wednesday as presenting opportunities for expanded military cooperation—are
instructive. In Libya, the US-backed operation to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi
empowered a handful of militant groups and helped turn the country into a
training ground for radical guerrillas. Meanwhile, arms from Qaddafi’s
arsenal made their way to Mali, where they enabled a coup led by a captain
named Amadou Haya Sanogo, who had
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/leader-of-mali-milita
ry-coup-trained-in-us/2012/03/23/gIQAS7Q6WS_story.html> received extensive
military training in the United States. In turn, weapons and militants from
Mali now appear to be boosting the insurgency in
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/nigerian-islamist-militants-retu
rn-from-mali-with-weapons-skills/2013/05/31/d377579e-c628-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4
000a_story.html> Nigeria.
Obama’s speech has been widely interpreted as hailing a “
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-wants-to-set-up
-new-5-billion-counterterrorism-fund/2014/05/28/c5ee3362-e662-11e3-a86b-362f
d5443d19_story.html> new, postwar foreign policy,” marking the start of a
new era focused on “facilitat[ing] partner countries on the front lines.”
But deriding the “costly mistakes” of large-scale military intervention is
not a new position for Obama. It’s what got him elected.
Obama wasn’t announcing a novel position at West Point; he was defending his
policies, including drone strikes and deepening engagement in Africa. In
doing so Obama spoke as if overt intervention and behind-the-scenes meddling
were not two sides to the same coin. Fundamentally, both are military
solutions. America’s fights in Iraq and
<
http://www.thenation.com/afghanistan?lc=int_mb_1001> Afghanistan may be
(not quite) over, but it’s shortsighted to call policy “postwar” if it’s
dedicated to perpetuating the “War on Terror.”
The good news is that by asking Congress to fund the Counter-Terrorism
Partnerships Fund, Obama has created an opportunity for lawmakers and the
public to ask tough questions about the objectives and risks of expanding
the military’s footprint in Africa, and with dubious partners. Let’s hope
they take it.
Copyright © 2012 The Nation
Received on Sat May 31 2014 - 06:08:09 EDT