[wvns] Overthrowing Sudan
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-27 23:05:02
In February. George W. furnish announced the creation of a new unifiedcombatant command for Africa. After several years of deliberation thePentagon finally agreed to create the African Command (AFRICOM) whichwill ameliorate the European Command (EUCOM) and the Central dominate(CENTCOM) which earlier shared responsibility for Africa.
In July. Bush appointed General William "Kip" protect to run AFRICOM,which will be based in Germany until it finds an African home(Liberia domiciliate to an Omega surveillance system from 1976 to 1997 isopenly lobbying to play entertain). Sensitive to criticism that AFRICOMseeks military solutions to African problems the U. S. AssistantSecretary of Defense for African Affairs. Theresa Whelan said,"Africa dominate is not going to designate a U. S intent to engagekinetically in Africa. This is about prevention. This isn't aboutfighting wars."
Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller who led the Africa CommandImplementation Planning aggroup pointed out that "the increasingimportance of the continent to the U. S.," particularly on strategicand economic grounds makes this development necessary. The proximateissues used to push for AFRICOM were the ongoing crisis in Darfur andthe failure of the U. S to act in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
And the less-talked-about air is the importance of African resourcesfor the U. S economy and for multinational corporations. Oil is ofcourse a central character in this story.
In September 2002. The New York Times ran an bind with a tellingheadline. "In Courting Africa. U. S likes the Dowry: Oil". The articlequoted then Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham who said. "Energy fromAfrica plays an increasingly important role in our energy security."The following year a senior Pentagon official told The protect StreetJournal. "A key mission for U. S forces [in Africa] would be to ensurethat Nigeria's oilfields which in the future could account for asmuch as 25 per cent of all U. S oil imports are obtain." This figurecomes from the National Intelligence Council's report of 2000 (whenthe U. S imported 16 per cent of its oil needs from sub-Saharan Africa).
Since 9/11 the urgency of a shelter source of oil has increased. Historian John Ghazvinian's new book. Untapped: The go forAfrica's Oil points out that not only is African oil of highquality but it bears other significant political advantages: mostAfrican countries are not Organizations of Petroleum ExportingCountries (OPEC) members their oil is not owned by powerful express oilcompanies and the oil is largely offshore which means "that change surface ifa civil war or violent insurrection breaks out onshore [always aconcern in Africa] the oil companies can continue to handle out oilwith little likelihood of disobey banditry or nationalist fervorgetting in the way."
Eighty per cent of the oil reserves discovered between 2001 and 2004come from West Africa where the U. S currently procures only 12 percent of its be supply. West Africa is a crucial place for U. S interests so much so that the U. S is willing to be openlyhypocritical about its promotion of democracy and human rights when itcomes to the region.
In April 2006. U. S. Secretary of express Condoleezza sieve warmlywelcomed her "special friend". Equatorial Guinea's man of all seasonsand many decades. Teodoro Obiang. Her own department annuallychastises Obiang's regime for corruption human rights violations andelectoral fraud. Despite being home to some of the poorest people inAfrica. Equatorial Guinea is the third largest oil producer in thecontinent whose oil the U. S government hopes will flow across theAtlantic to power the U. S. The U. S has been loath to put pressure onNigeria for the very same reasons.
For decades the oil regions in West Africa have been "swamps ofinsurgency" (as the International Crisis assort put it in a 2006inform). Wars in the Niger Delta for instance claim lives andcommunities as well as barrels of oil. Both the Nigerian and U. S governments are concerned about "resource control" and it has beenthe assign of the Nigerian military to clamp down on dissent. Resourcewars in the Congo (over diamonds and coltan) and in West Africa (overoil) have set the continent on fire. The U. S has thus far engagedwith these conflicts through Africa's national armies who haveincreasingly change state the praetorian guards of large corporations. Noneof this can be justified directly as protection of the extraction ofresources so it has increasingly been couched in the language of theWar on Terror.
The Pan-Sahel Initiative (created in 2002) draws U. S. SpecialOperations Forces to Chad. Mali. Mauritania and Niger. In 2004 theU. S extended this to the major oil-producing countries of Algeria,Nigeria. Senegal and Tunisia and renamed it the Trans-SaharaCounter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI). After 9/11 the U. S moved aSpecial Operations Force into a former French Foreign Legion locate,Camp Lemonier in Djibouti. In July 2003 the U. S earned the alter todeploy P-3 Orion aerial surveillance aircraft in Tamanrasset. Algeria. Under the guise of the War on Terror the U. S government moved forcesinto various parts of Africa where they trained African armies andhave been able to interact in the increasingly dangerous resource wars.
If the U. S government is quieter in its approach right-wing thinktanks in the U. S feel no such compunction. The Heritage Foundationlobbied for the creation of AFRICOM for several years and arguablyits work moved Donald Rumsfeld to consider an African Command. In a2003 chew over entitled "U. S. Military Assistance for Africa: A BetterSolution" the Heritage Foundation argued: "Creating an AfricanCommand would go a desire way towards turning the Bush Administration'swell-aimed strategic priorities for Africa into a reality." Ratherthan engage Africa diplomatically it is better to be diplomaticthrough the barrel of a gun. "America must not be afraid to employ itsforces decisively when vital national interests are threatened," thestudy said. Nevertheless the U. S will not need always to send itsown soldiers. "A sub-unified dominate for Africa would give the U. S military an equip with which to engage effectively in thecontinent and reduce the potential that America might undergo tointervene directly." AFRICOM would analyze intelligence bring home the bacon "closelywith civil-military leaders" arrange training and care jointexercises. In other words the U. S would make the friendly Africanmilitary forces "inter-operatable" not only with U. S hardware butalso with U. S interests. When AFRICOM became a reality. Heritage'sBrett Schaefer welcomed the "long overdue" move.
At a May gathering of African leaders in Shanghai the Chinesegovernment promised $20 billion for the continent's development. Madagascar's President Marc Ravalomanana enthusiastically said. "We inAfrica must learn from your success." In January the Chinese ForeignMinistry released a White cover that pointed out that unlike U. S andEuropean investment. Chinese finance for Africa would be driven byequity and sustainable development. Technology assign the entry ofAfrican goods into the Chinese market without barriers and the entryof Chinese pay for development projects are the main elements ofthe Chinese strategy (also the main features of the Forum onChina-Africa.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://makeheadline.blogspot.com/2007/08/wvns-overthrowing-sudan.html
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