The Master as “Guest”: The U.S. Military Swarms Over Africa
Wed, 01/09/2013 - 01:40 — Glen Ford
* U.S. Brigade to Africa |
* SOmalia War |
* Mali Intervention |
* AFRICOM |
* African UnionPrinter-friendly version
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
A long-planned U.S.
escalation of its military presence in Africa will soon get underway,
with the permanent deployment of a 3,500-strong brigade. The heavy
combat team will make itself at home in African bases in 35 countries.
“This is a very different kind of invasion – more like an
infiltration-in-force.”
The Master as “Guest”: The U.S. Military Swarms Over Africa
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“The 2ndBrigade’s deployment is a much larger assignment, aimed at making all
of Africa a theater of U.S. military operations.”
2013 is the year the U.S. kicks off its wholesale military occupation of
Africa. The escalation
should come as no surprise, since the Army Times newspaperreported, back in
June, that a U.S. brigade of at least 3,000 troops
would become a permanent presence on the continent in the new year. On
Christmas Eve, the Pentagon announced that 3,500 soldiers of the 1stInfantry
Division’s 2ndBrigade, in Fort Riley, Kansas, will be sent to Africa,
supposedly to
confront a threat from al-Qaida in Mali, where Islamists have seized the
northern part of the country. But the 2ndBrigade is scheduled to hold more than
100 military exercises in 35 countries, most of which have no al-Qaida
presence. So, although there is no doubt that the U.S. will be deeply involved
in the impending military
operation in Mali, the 2ndBrigade’s deployment is a much larger assignment,
aimed at making all of Africa a theater of U.S. military operations.The
situation in Mali is simply a convenient, after-the-fact rationale for a
long-planned expansion of the U.S. military footprint in Africa.
The Pentagon’s larger
purpose in placing an army brigade on roving duty all across the
continent is to acclimate African commanders to hosting a permanent,
large scale U.S. presence. This is a very different kind of invasion –
more like an infiltration-in-force. The Pentagon’s strategy is designed
to reinforce relationships that the U.S. Africa Command has been
cultivating with African militaries since the establishment of AFRICOMduring
George Bush’s last year in office. As an infiltrating force, AFRICOM has been a
phenomenal success.
“Militarily, the West Africans are totally dependent.”
Militarily speaking, the African Union has become an annex of the Pentagon.The
AU’s biggest operation, in Somalia, is armed, financed and directed by the U.S.
military and CIA. The 17,000 African troops on so-called
peace-keeping duty in Somalia are, for all practical purposes,
mercenaries for the Americans – although poorly paid ones. Ethiopian and Kenyan
forces act as extensions of U.S. power in the East Africa. U.S.
Special Forces roam the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, South
Sudan, and the Central African Republic – ostensibly looking for the
fugitive warlord Joseph Kony but, in reality, establishing a web of U.S.
military infrastructuresthroughout center of the continent. Uganda and Rwanda
keep the eastern
Congo’s mineral riches safe for U.S. and European corporations – at the
cost of 6 million Congolese lives. Their militaries are on the
Pentagon’s payroll.
In northwest Africa, the 16 nations of the region’s economic community await
the intervention of the United Nations– which really means the United States
and France – to expel the Islamist forcesfrom Mali. Militarily, the West
Africans are totally dependent. But,
more importantly, they show no political will to escape this dependency –
especially after the demise of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
The creeping, continental U.S. expeditionary force, soon to be spearheaded by
the 1stInfantry Division’s 2ndBrigade, will bunk down in African military bases
throughout the
continent, not as invaders, but as guests. Guests who pay the bills and
provide the weapons for African armies whose mission has nothing to do
with national independence and self-determination. Three generations
after the beginnings of decolonization, the African soldier is once
again bowing to the foreign master.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at
[email protected].
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/master-%E2%80%9Cguest%E2%80%9D-us-military-swarms-over-africa
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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