U.S. Militarism In Africa: Humanitarian Missions Or Imperialist Aggression?
By <
http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/abayomi-azikiwe/> Abayomi Azikiwe
Global Research, September 06, 2012
Unbeknownst to the majority of people in the United States, the Pentagon is
directing increased attention to the African continent. The formation of the
United States Africa Command (Africom) in 2008 signaled this trend which had
been developing for at least a decade.
This should not be surprising considering the history of the U.S. and its
European antecedents. Since the mid-15th century Western European nations
have been involved with Africa through the Atlantic Slave Trade and later
the colonization of the continent. The profitability of the colonies of the
Western hemisphere is directly related to the exploitation of African labor.
Although the official history of the U.S. prides itself on the notions of
freedom of the individual, the capacity for reforms and amendments to the
constitution, there is also the resistance to change embedded deeply in the
fabric of political culture, law and the economic structures of society. The
slave system in the U.S. was introduced by the British colonialists during
the second decade of the 17th century in Virginia.
>From the time of 1619 to 1865, some two-and-one-half centuries, slavery was
a profitable economic system that provided the wealth and technology that
sprung America to the industrial position that it occupied during the latter
decades of the 19th century. By the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the
so-called Spanish-American war would usher in a new era of imperialism that
became increasingly dominated by the United States.
With specific reference to the economic system of slavery and its
justification within the American legal system, African American historian
W.E.B. DuBois wrote in his seminal work on the failure of Reconstruction in
the aftermath of the civil war, that "Negro slaves in America represented
the worst and lowest conditions among modern laborers." (Black
Reconstruction in America, 1935)
DuBois continued pointing out that "One estimate is that the maintenance of
a slave in the South cost the master about $19 a year, which means that they
were among the poorest paid laborers in the modern world. They represented
in a very real sense the ultimate degradation of man (and woman). Indeed,
the system was so reactionary, so utterly inconsistent with modern progress,
that we simply cannot grasp it today. No matter how degraded the factory
hand, he is not real estate."
Exemplifying the total degradation of the African under the slave system in
the U.S. was the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857. DuBois recounts that
"The whole legal status of slavery was enunciated in the extraordinary
statement of a Chief Justice (Taney) of the United States that Negroes had
always been regarded in America 'as having no rights which a white man was
bound to respect.'"
Within the sphere of the process of production under slavery in the U.S.,
DuBois emphasizes that "Under the competition of growing industrial
organization, the slave system was indeed the source of immense profits. But
for the slave owner and landlord to keep a large or even reasonable share of
these profits was increasingly difficult. The price of the slave produce in
the open market could be hammered down by merchants and traders acting with
knowledge and collusion. And the slave owner was, therefore, continually
forced to find his profits not in the high price of cotton and sugar, but in
beating even further down the cost of his slave labor."
Another historian who studied the impact of the slave system on the
development of American civilization was Trinidadian C.L.R. James. He wrote
in 1970 that "the triangular trade in sugar, rum and slaves in an instance
of programmed accumulation of wealth such as the world has rarely seen.
'American slavery', says one author, 'was unique in the sense that for
symmetry and precision of outline, nothing like it had ever previously been
seen.' The element of order in the barbarism was this: the rationalization
of a labor force upon which the whole process of colonization depended had
the African at its most essential point. If he (or she) had not been able to
work or sustain himself (or herself) or learn the language or maintain
co-operation in his (or her) social life, the whole question of America as a
distinct civilization could never have arisen. We might be then talking
about a sort of New Zeland or perhaps Canada." (James, The Future in the
Present, 1980)
Yet even New Zeland and Canada could not have become capitalist states
allied with imperialism without the forced subjugation and removal of the
indigenous peoples of those lands. Canada, had been a slave territory under
the British where the system was eliminated decades prior to the Civil War
in the U.S. and consequently became a haven for runaway Africans fleeing the
exploitative system to the south.
>From Colonialism to the Cold War (1900-1990)
As a result of the Atlantic Slave Trade, colonialism was instituted in North
America, the Caribbean and Latin America. The Haitian Revolution of
1791-1803 illustrated profoundly the fragility of the slave and colonial
system and more importantly the capacity of human beings, no matter how
degraded, oppressed and exploited, to organize, rise up, rebel and take
power from the slave masters.
Between the period of the Spanish-American War, as we referenced earlier, to
the conclusion of World War II, the industrial and technological advancement
of the U.S. reached historic levels. The advent of the assembly line,
speculative finance and the expansion of global markets for industrial
products, placed the ruling class within the U.S. in a dominant economic and
political position in relationship to its European counterparts and imperial
Japan.
The character of the battles fought during World War II spared the U.S. from
the destruction that destroyed the economic and social fabric of Europe and
Japan. War production in the U.S. and the indebtedness of Europe catapulted
the ruling elite in America to a dominate position within the world
capitalist system.
After 1945, it was only the Soviet Union that was in a position to
effectively challenge U.S. hegemony internationally. Other
socialist-oriented revolutions in Korea (1945-48), China (1949), Vietnam
(1945-54) and Yugoslavia (1945) provided additional challenges to the
capitalist system both militarily as well as providing an alternative model
for the organization of society, the planning of a national economy and the
character of international relations.
This perceived threat to U.S. dominance resulted in the so-called Cold War.
This war became hot in 1950 with the beginning of the Korean War that lasted
for three years and involved the People's Republic of China.
In Vietnam, the U.S. was keen to ensure French dominance which inevitably
was defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. By 1961, the U.S. would send advisers
to Vietnam in an effort to stop communism. In 1965, hundreds of thousands of
occupation troops entered southeast Asia and remained there for a decade.
The Cuban Revolution of 1959 soon became socialist-oriented and the U.S.
response to this phenomenon in its so-called "backyard" almost led to
nuclear war with the Soviet Union in 1962. The Cuban Revolution encouraged
the U.S. to enter the Dominican Republic in 1965 in an attempt to prevent
another socialist intervention.
That same year in Indonesia, the potential for the seizure of power by the
Communist Party, the second largest at the time just next to China, brought
about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
With specific reference to Africa, the U.S. government after World War II
paid lip service to the anti-colonial struggle, but in actuality supported
the perpetuation of the status-quo. Although relationships between the U.S.
administration and progressive African states were established in Ghana,
Guinea, Algeria, Egypt, Tanzania and others, nonetheless, it became obvious
even during the 1950s and 1960s, and was documented later, that successive
Washington administrations were more concerned about containing Soviet,
Chinese and Cuban influence than assisting a genuine process of
de-colonization and independence.
Algeria, a former French colony that won its liberation through a protracted
armed struggle between 1954-1961, sought relations with Washington. However,
even under the Kennedy administration there were efforts to discourage
Algiers from enhancing its cooperation with revolutionary Cuba. The invasion
of Algeria by Morocco in 1963 was encouraged and engineered by the U.S. as a
means of stifling and reversing the African Revolution.
In Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah in 1966, a police and military coup was
masterminded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the State
Department. These facts came out during the revelations of the 1970s in the
aftermath of the Watergate scandal and the declassification of intelligence
documents.
In reference to South Africa, African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson
Mandela was thrown into prison in 1962 after he had traveled to Algeria for
military training provided by the late Ahmed Ben Bella of the National
Liberation Front (FLN). It was the CIA operating in league with the racist
apartheid regime that brought about the arrest and prosecution of Mandela
who spent over 27 years in prison.
The former Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau
represented a lifeline for Lisbon. Portugal was a member of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and enjoyed the support of the U.S. in
its more than a decade of war against the liberation movements in these
former colonies.
Even after the independence of Angola in 1975, the U.S. collaborated with
the racist South African Defense Forces (SADF) and the reactionary UNITA and
FNLA guerrilla groups in an effort to undermine the genuine and total
liberation of this oil-rich Southern African nation. It was the intervention
of Cuban internationalist forces in Angola between 1975-1989 that ensured
the defeat of the SADF and consequently lead to the independence of Namibia.
After the independence of Namibia in 1990, the apartheid regime, which
benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. corporate investment
and military assistance, agreed to release Nelson Mandela and other
political prisoners in South Africa and enter into serious negotiations with
the liberation movements for a transfer of power.
U.S.-Africa Relations in the Post-Cold War Period
Beginning in the late 1980s, the socialist states of Eastern Europe
unraveled. In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed.
Yugoslavia, which had pursued an independent socialist path, broke-up over
the course of the 1990s through civil war, partition and the eventual
U.S.-NATO bombings of 1999.
China, although remaining socialist, shifted its domestic and foreign policy
to accommodate large-scale trade and investment with the U.S. after the
death of Mao Tse-Tung in 1976 and the ascendancy of Deng-Tsao-Ping. Many of
the states in Africa which had proclaimed themselves socialist began to
reverse policies related to state control of economic planning and
anti-imperialist foreign policy.
Yet how has these developments impacted U.S. foreign policy toward Africa?
If there is no real threat of socialist influence, why has the Pentagon
increased its military involvement on the continent?
Why was the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) created in 2008? Has the
establishment of a Pentagon base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti
increased instability in East Africa that could lead to a more unstable
political situation in both East and Central Africa?
The answer to these questions lies within the actual developments in Africa
over the last five years. Let us examine events in several African states
and the role of the U.S. and its allies in the region.
Libya: A Humanitarian War?
The 2011 war against the North African state of Libya represented the first
full project of the U.S. Africa Command (Africom). Since Libya's Revolution
in 1969, the U.S. had been at odds with the country and its leader Col.
Muammar Gaddafi.
Libya is a former Italian colony and during World War II the U.S. moved in
and began to construct the Wheelus Air Force Base. As the Cold War escalated
after the War, Libya became an important outpost for the Pentagon.
When Gaddafi came to power the U.S. air base was closed and the country
nationalized its oil resources. Later it was determined that Libya
encompassed the largest known oil reserves on the continent.
In the early 1980s relations between the U.S. and Libya worsened with the
shooting down of Libyan planes by the U.S. Air Force in 1981. In 1986, Libya
was bombed in two cities, Tripoli and Benghazi, under the Reagan
administration. The country's government was accused of being behind an
attack on a night club in West Germany that was frequented by U.S. troops
stationed in the region.
Economic sanctions and a travel ban was imposed on Libya by the U.S. This
state of affairs lasted until 2003, when on the eve of the war against Iraq,
the U.S. moved to "normalize" relations with Libya in exchange for its
purported disarmament of "weapons of mass destruction."
Trade increased between Libya and the U.S. as well as several Western
European states. This state of affairs continued until 2009 when a Libyan
was released from a Scottish prison on humanitarian grounds.
He had been convicted during the 1990s for alleged involvement in the
bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. Of the two Libyans put on
trial for this action, only one was convicted. At the time of his release
the case was under appeal and may very well have been overturned.
Relations worsened between the U.S. and Libya after 2009, and by February
2011, when a rebellion erupted in the east of the country, the U.S. and NATO
intervened through an arms embargo, a naval blockade and a massive bombing
campaign that resulted in 26,000 sorties and nearly 10,000 airstrikes. The
rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) was installed as the "legitimate"
government of the country.
Approximately two million Libyans and foreign nationals residing in the
country were displaced, thousands died in the war and the consequent
instability engendered by the rebel group, the air campaign, naval blockade
and the freezing of over $160 billion in foreign assets has had regional
implications that have spread to neighboring Mali, where a rebellion in the
north of the country precipitated a military coup and the possible
intervention of a regional armed force to ostensibly stabilize the
situation.
Today Libya is more divided than during any period of its post-independence
history with secessionist efforts in the east, increased fighting in the
south and the failure of the NTC to reign in militias under a national army.
Somalia: Another War for Oil?
In Somalia in the Horn of Africa, the involvement of the U.S. has extended
back at least until the late 1970s when the Carter administration encouraged
the-then military government of Mohamed SiadBarre to invade the Ogaden
region of Ethiopia. After Somalia's defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian
military and Cuban internationalist forces then in the country to bolster
its socialist orientation, the state of Somalia spun into instability and
horrendous food deficits.
By 1991, the SiadBarre regime had collapsed under internal pressures and
since this time there has really been no stable internationally recognized
government in Somalia. In late 1992, thousands of U.S. Marines entered the
country in "Operation Restore Hope," which it was claimed at the time, was
designed to provide humanitarian relief from famine.
In just a few months a national uprising was launched against the U.S. and
United Nations presence in Somalia resulting in the deaths of many Marines
as well as thousands of Somalians. Both the U.S. and U.N. forces withdrew in
1994, not to return until the recent period.
Since 2006, the U.S. has attempted to control the situation inside the
country. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is essentially bankrolled
by the U.S. and the African Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom) largely
consists of U.S.-backed forces from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti.
In October 2011, the Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) invaded the south of
Somalia in a bid to crush the Al-Shabaab Islamic resistance movement which
has been labeled by the U.S. as a "terrorist" organization. It turns out
that this intervention, "Operation Linda Nchi," had been planned for two
years between Africom, the TFG and the Kenyan government.
Despite this intervention as well, Somalia is still not stable and the
humanitarian situation remains dire. The Pentagon and the CIA has deployed
drones in Somalia resulting in the deaths of hundreds of nationals. These
drones have fallen in displaced persons camps killing innocent civilians.
These attacks on Somalia is coupled with a formidable naval presence by the
Pentagon and the European Union off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of
Aden, one of the most lucrative shipping lanes in the world. This presence
is ostensibly geared toward fighting piracy which has been deemed a major
problem in the region.
Somalia has been determined to be a major source of oil reserves. Drilling
and speculation are taking place in the breakaway region of Puntland in the
north by Canadian and British firms. U.S. firms claim to have purchased
concessions for oil drilling and like Libya, these projects will inevitably
be conducted by private corporate interests.
Kony 2012: Special Forces and Advisors to the Rescue
Perhaps the most well publicized U.S. military adventure in Africa recently
has been the so-called "Invisible Children" campaign. On October 14, 2011,
the Obama administration announced that 100 Pentagon Special Forces and
advisors were being dispatched to four states in East and Central Africa to
track down Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
The LRA has been largely defeated in northern Uganda where it was founded.
The remnants of the group have scattered into the Central African Republic,
South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Uganda is emerging as another oil producing state and has close political,
military and economic ties to the U.S. The DRC is a treasure trove of
strategic minerals and South Sudan is awash with oil.
Whether Kony is captured or killed the U.S. involvement in the region will
continue and be enhanced. The U.S. is becoming more dependent upon oil
imports from Africa, now approximately 25 percent of its overall supply from
outside the country.
The Role of China
We would be remiss not to mention the growing role of China in African
affairs. As I wrote in 2010, "the strongest growth in trade has taken place
between Africa and Asian states, with the People's Republic of China being
the most significant. China's trade with Africa was recorded at $93 billion
in 2008, making it the second largest partner after the U.S. In Nigeria
alone, a recently signed oil cooperation agreement with China is reported to
involve between $32 billion to $50 billion in trade and investment." (Africa
& Imperialism)
This same article continues noting a United Nations report indicating "that
trade between Africa and China, had increased by 1,000 percent during the
period between 2000-2008." As of 2010, "China accounted for 11 percent of
the continent's external trade, with the bulk of transactions taking place
in the sectors of primary products, including fuel and minerals."
Conclusion
These are some of the important issues that must be evaluated when assessing
U.S.-Africa relations. The source of this relationship has been economic
since the Atlantic Slave Trade and the period of direct colonial rule.
With the U.S. and Europe facing the worst economic crisis since the Great
Depression, we will see enhanced efforts aimed at the capturing and
domination of foreign resources and trade relations that are clearly linked
to the massive re-structuring of the labor market inside the U.S.
Whether this intervention in Africa will continue on its present course
depends upon political developments inside the U.S. and the level of
opposition in Africa. What is clear is that until a more balanced and
equitable system of trade and international relations develops, people
inside the United States will continue to pay a heavy price for the
dependence upon oil and other strategic resources in Africa and other parts
of the world.
Abayomi Azikiwe is Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Received on Fri Sep 07 2012 - 10:39:16 EDT
