[dehai-news] (WW) Africans reject U.S. Africa Command


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From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Oct 10 2008 - 11:47:38 EDT


Africans reject U.S. Africa Command

By

 Abayomi Azikiwe

 Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Published Oct 9, 2008

On Oct. 1, the much-anticipated United States Africa Command (Africom) was
officially launched. This military reorganization of U.S. forces to oversee
developments in the entire continent has been met with strong objection from
the major political states and regional blocs there. Despite a 19-month effort
to win African acceptance for this plan, the headquarters of Africom remains in
Stuttgart, Germany.

Although the west African state of Liberia has expressed interest in hosting
Africom, the only real base of U.S. operations is Camp Lemonier in Djibouti in
the Horn of Africa. (Liberia has maintained close ties with the U.S. since its
inception as a semicolonial outpost where former slaves sought an independent
existence during the early and middle 19th century. In 1926, the Firestone
Company acquired control of one million acres of Liberia and soon had turned
the country into the world’s largest rubber plantation.)

The U.S. military base in Djibouti has existed since at least 2002, when the
Bush administration began to place greater emphasis on the Horn of Africa,
claiming that so-called “Islamic terrorists” were utilizing
neighboring Somalia as an area of operation.

Reports have also surfaced since 2007 that the southern African nation of
Botswana was being courted over the possibility of establishing an Africom base
in this largely arid and sparsely populated diamond-rich country, which borders
both Zimbabwe and South Africa. (Kenya Daily Nation, Sept. 13, 2007)

Attempt to reorganize U.S. military operations

Prior to the creation of Africom, the U.S. military command structure in Africa
was divided among three other regions: the Central Command (Centcom), which was
responsible for Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya;
the European Command (Eucom), which covered other states on the continent; and
the Pacific Command (Pacom), with responsibility for Madagascar, the Seychelles
and the Indian Ocean area.

Africom will be headed by a four-star general, William E. Ward, who is
African-American. When the Bush administration first announced in February 2007
that it would launch this new reorganization plan, the nations of South Africa,
Nigeria, Zimbabwe and others immediately denounced the concept and urged other
states to follow suit.

Since this time period the U.S. has attempted to cover up its true imperialist
objectives and to promote Africom as another assistance program that would
enhance the continent’s ability in various areas, including national
security, technical development and governmental capacity building.

In a recent State Department-sponsored Voice of America radio interview, Mauro
De Lorenzo, a resident fellow for foreign and defense policy at the right-wing
American Enterprise Institute, told reporter Peter Clottey from Washington that
Africom would bolster Africa’s security situation but played down its
impact.

“I think it’s a positive development, but one which almost no one
will notice in Africa in their daily lives. Africom is simply going to take
over the programs and objectives that were previously carried out by three
separate U.S military commands,” said the AEI spokesperson.

De Lorenzo sought to ease the concerns of African states by saying that
“Most governments won’t notice much of a difference. The content of
what they are engaging in with the United States is not going to change very
much right now. And certainly citizens will not see anything new or surprising
as a result of this.”

However, an article published on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Web
site on Oct.1 indicated that the number one priority of Africom was the
so-called “war on terrorism.” The U.S. has no faith in those states
it has funded to work toward eradicating the purported influence of al-Qaeda
and other organizations that are targeted as a threat to imperialist
interests.

The BBC article stated that “The main area of concern currently for the
U.S. is Somalia, where it claims al-Qaeda operatives have sought shelter and
where training may be taking place. The U.S. has launched a number of airborne
attacks on suspected al-Qaeda personnel in Somalia without, it must be said,
much success.”

According to the BBC article, the second priority of Africom is to secure oil
resources for U.S. markets. With the increasing levels of resistance in Iraq
and throughout the Middle-East region, the transnational oil corporations are
looking to Africa to supply greater amounts of petroleum to the U.S. and other
Western imperialist countries.

“Africa is the world’s primary growing oil market; the U.S. already
gets about 20 percent of its oil supplies from West Africa and the U.S. is
committed to increasing its supply of oil from the continent to 25 percent by
2015,” the BBC article stated. There was also concern expressed by the
BBC that the political situations in Sudan, Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial
Guinea, all oil-rich states, were not necessary conducive to U.S. strategic
interests.

Finally, the BBC identified the necessity, as far as U.S. imperialism is
concerned, to counteract the emerging influence of the People’s Republic
of China on the African continent. China not only has developed economic
partnerships with numerous African countries but has intervened at the United
Nations Security Council to prevent further sanctions against Zimbabwe and
Sudan, two states that have been targeted by the U.S. for regime change.

“China has prospered in Africa, leaving the rest of the
world—particularly Western countries—behind. Africom represents
part of a new U.S. strategy to engage with Africa,” the article
continued.

“The U.S. government has been careful to point out that the establishment
of Africom will not mean any new permanent military base in Africa and says
there is no hidden agenda. But such assurances have apparently done little to
lower levels of skepticism.”

Challenges for anti-war, anti-imperialist movement

With the formal launching of Africom, it is essential that people within the
U.S. oppose this effort on the part of imperialism to further its economic and
military grip over large sections of the African continent. It is clear that
several areas of the continent have been selected for direct military
intervention to enhance U.S. control over oil and other strategic resources
that are key to the continued dominance of capitalist globalization.

Recent diplomatic and military efforts against the nations of Somalia, Sudan
and Zimbabwe must be analyzed in light of the formation of Africom. These
countries have sought to move in a political direction independent of U.S.
influence. The corporate media outlets within the imperialist states have
continually slandered the leading political forces within these areas and are
constantly attempting to influence public opinion towards accepting direct
military intervention.

Consequently, anti-war and anti-imperialist groups in the capitalist states
must oppose Africom and its military interventionist program for the African
continent. The potential for wider military conflicts on the African continent
involving direct and indirect U.S. involvement is all too real.

In Somalia, a U.S.-backed invasion by Ethiopian troops in December 2006 has
created the worst humanitarian crisis on the continent. In Zimbabwe, the U.S.,
along with Britain and the European Union, has imposed sanctions that have had
a devastating impact on this southern African nation’s economy. In Sudan,
the conflict in Darfur has been utilized to push for the arrest of that
nation’s head of state and for U.S. intervention through a purported U.N.
peacekeeping force.

Therefore, U.S. military involvement in Africa can mean only greater
instability and underdevelopment on the continent.

http://www.workers.org/2008/world/africom_1016/

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