AFRICOM

When Pentagon strategists sought to create a new military command to oversee Africa, they believed they could build one that deemphasized military might and would serve as an exemplar of what so-called US soft power could do around the world.

The role of President Bush's Defense Unified Combat Command for Africa - AFRICOM, established in October 2007 - which includes conducting military operations in that country, was debated by a panel of experts Monday at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. The experts, including Charles Minor III, an ambassador from Liberia, downplayed the combatant aspect of the command and agreed that the initiative would help strengthen U.S.-African relations. But an expert from the libertarian Cato Institute told Cybercast New Service that AFRICOM has faced stiff opposition throughout Africa, adding that there is conflict in the U.S. government over what kind of role military operations would play in the program.

Senator and Presidential candidate John McCain said that it would be fine with him if the military stayed in Iraq for a hundred years. His prediction maybe be proved in the future to be correct. American men and women are being sacrificed on the Alter of Globalism. Your liberties are being taken from you by those you have never met. This is one of the biggest scams that have ever been run on the American people.

U.S. President George W. Bush has said that Liberia might be chosen to be a new location of U.S. military command for Africa, local mass media reported Friday.

While attention may be focused on Iraq, the U.S. government is also spending substantial cash on private security contractors in Africa. I had never heard of the AFRICAP contract until today, when I noted that the Department of State is looking to recompete a contract worth approximately one billion dollars to train peacekeepers and provide military logistics in Africa:

As the US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, was recently visiting American forces in Djibouti, the Washington Post was reporting how the Pentagon has been spearheading a seemingly dicey initiative to pressure Washington into recognizing the secessionist northwestern region of Somalia known as “Somaliland” as an independent state.

Mary Yates is deputy to the commander of the U.S. military's new Africa Command. But she has no stars on her shoulder and does not wear a uniform. Yates is a career diplomat who has served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Burundi. Her appointment symbolizes the military's effort to make its newest command very different from the others and a possible model for the future. The command, responsible for U.S. military operations in Africa, will include more diplomats, aid experts and other civilians than headquarters for other parts of the world. And they will be integral to the organization, not just advisers. The U.S. government bills that change as an effort to make sure all its branches work together.

The U.S. efforts to seek a home for the Africa Command (AFRICOM) have suffered one more blow as the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) stated strong opposition Tuesday to any foreign military establishments on the soil of African countries. The UMA, founded in 1989 by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Moroccoand Tunisia, said through its consultative committee that such foreign establishments would not bring any benefit to the UMA or the African Union countries.

On 6 February 2007, President Bush announced that the United States would create a new military command for Africa, to be known as Africa Command or Africom. The Bush administration wants to significantly expand its security assistance program for regimes in Africa that are willing to act as surrogates, says Daniel Volman. It also reflects the growing alarm at the efforts of China to expand its energy supplies in Africa and to extend its political influence on the continent.

When President George W. Bush announced plans for a US military command for Africa – AFRICOM – in February, there was an uproar on the continent, and the controversy has yet to die down. Critics say AFRICOM is a poorly disguised attempt by the United States to gain access to African resources, to fight its war on terror on the continent and to interfere politically in African affairs by propping up governments that support US interests instead of their peoples’. But US officials insist that AFRICOM’s primary mission will be the training of African peacekeepers and that it will also help reduce poverty and corruption. In the second of a series on the command, VOA’s Darren Taylor focuses on the African reaction to AFRICOM.