See also:
21 May 2007 China pledges $20bn for Africa
http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?id=2550&lists=newslog
Original source URL:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/may2007/afri-m18.shtml
US government to set up new military command in Africa
By Lawrence Porter
18 May 2007
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In an ominous development mirroring the explosive expansion of US militarism,
the Bush administration has designated Africa as a continent of ³strategic
national concern,² and has initiated a new military policy to coincide with this
new classification.
The Bush administration announced in February the formation of a new military
command system in Africa, the United States African Command (AFRICOM), couched
in the usual combination of humanitarian and anti-terrorist terminology.
Last month Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Defense Policy Ryan Henry was
dispatched to a six-nation African tour to ³clear up misunderstandings² about
the Pentagon¹s new military program. Several regimes raised concerns that the US
was moving into the region because of the discovery of vast oil reserves in
parts of the continent and the growing influence of China, seen as both an
economic and political rival.
After Henry returned from meetings with officials from South Africa, Nigeria,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal and Kenya, he told the Washington media, ³The goal is
for AFRICOM not to be a US leadership role on the continent. We would be looking
to complement rather than compete with any leadership efforts currently going
on.²
He added that AFRICOM was not being set up in ³response to Chinese presence² or
to ³secure resources,² such as oil. ³While some of these may be part of the
formula,² he acknowledged, the real is reason is that Africa ³is emerging on the
world scene as a strategic Œplayer,¹ and we need to deal with it as a
continent.²
To assure the African leaders, Henry said AFRICOM will not result in large-scale
deployment of troops on the continent or a major increase in Pentagon spending
there. However, to anyone familiar with diplomatic language, ³strategic player²
means that, in the view of the Bush administration, it is well worth waging wars
in Africa in the defense of US interests.
West Africa, including Nigeria, presently supplies 12 percent of US crude oil
imports. By 2015, it is estimated this share will rise to 25 percent, a greater
proportion than Saudi Arabia.
China is the second largest importer of oil after the US, to fuel its rapid
economic expansion. According to China¹s General Administration of Customs, the
Asian nation imported nearly 11 percent more oil during the first four months of
2007 than during the same period in 2006, with the bulk of the increase coming
from Africa. In 2006 China consumed 320 million tons of crude oil, with 7
percent of its imports coming from the Sudan.
China imports 25 percent of its crude oil from Africa and is looking for ways to
increase the supply from the continent. Since 2000 there has been a five-fold
increase in trade between China and Africa‹now totaling $5.5 billion a year‹and
China is now the continent¹s third largest trading partner, following the US and
France and eclipsing Great Britain.
Sub-Saharan Africa includes eight oil-producing countries: Nigeria, Angola,
Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameron, Chad, the Democratic
Republic of Congo and Sudan.
Nigeria is the largest producer of oil in Africa and has the 11th largest
reserves in the world. It is presently producing 2.45 million barrels a day, 42
percent of which goes to the US. The three largest oil companies in the country
include two US firms, ExxonMobil and Chevron, and the British-Dutch Shell.
Angola is the second-largest African oil producer and is expected to reach 2
million barrels a day by 2008.
Sudan is also rich in oil, and China has more influence there than any other
country. China controls 40 percent of Sudan¹s oil although Chevron spent $1.2
billion there and discovered oilfields in the south and at one point estimated
that Sudan might prove to have more oil than Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Mandy Turner of the Guardian characterized both the US and China as key players
in a new ³scramble for Africa.² ³The new entrant to the scramble is China,² she
wrote. ³Africa offers the natural resources vital to fuel its rapidly growing
economy,² including copper and cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo and
Zambia, iron ore and platinum from South Africa, and to Cameroon, Gabon and the
Republic of the Congo for timber. For oil, it has been striking deals with
Nigeria, Angola, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.²
The military, security and oil
With the end of the Cold War, when the major concern of the US was the struggle
against the Soviet Union, requiring alliances with nominally independent Third
World regimes, after 1991 the US felt able to pursue a more openly
colonial-style policy of hegemonic control through the use of the military. The
9/11 terrorist attacks have served as a useful pretext for this shift in US
operations in Africa.
Despite the pretense that fighting terrorists and preventing humanitarian
disasters will be the main purpose of US military operations in Africa, a report
published by the National Intelligence Council, which bills itself as the US
intelligence Community¹s center for mid-term and long-term strategy thinking,
makes it clear that US aims in the region are geopolitical in nature, with
control of oil resources a primary concern.
Entitled ³External Relations and Africa,² the report says, ³Military engagement
has shifted from direct support of proxy regimes or movements during the Cold
War,² (as when the Belgium government, with the help of the CIA, overthrew and
murdered Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba), ³to a combination of
capacity-building and, especially post-9/11, direct American military
involvement in basing areas such as Djibouti.²
In the section, ³Future Trends in External Engagement with Africa,² one of the
prime reasons given for direct military engagement is ³the increasing importance
of the oil sector in especially but not exclusively US policy calculations on
Africa.²
³Importantly,² the report continues, ³most of Africa¹s oil producers are not
OPEC members‹notably Angola, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo-Brazzaville and
Cameroon.²
An ominous warning of future US military operations in Africa came last month
when Ethiopian troops, backed by the US, carried out a bloodbath in Somalia,
leveling large parts of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the capital city,
Mogadishu. (See ³Massacre in Mogadishu‹war crime made in the USA²) Over a
thousand people have died since US war planes bombed towns in southern Somalia
and 350,000 to half a million people have fled the city, living in camps.
While officially there are no American troops involved in this conflict, CIA
personnel and military special forces have been involved in the training of
Ethiopian troops. One of the first objectives of the Ethiopian forces was to
reoccupy the American embassy. (See ³Ethiopian troops occupy Mogadishu²)
Somalia is just one strategic flashpoint. J. Peter Pham, director of the Nelson
Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University and
an advocate of US domination of Africa, commented in an editorial in the
National Interest online that the decision of the Bush administration to
establish the command center ³represents the administration¹s single most
purposeful step towards assigning Africa its due priority.² (See ³The Africa
Command Rises‹Finally²)
³The move,² states Pham, could represent ³a significant long-term engagement²
that would ³anchor the continent firmly in America¹s orbit² (emphasis added). He
went on to cite the 2002 National Security Strategy document where the Bush
administration stated it has the right to carry out preemptive strikes against
any country to defend its interests, ³Africa,² states the report, ³holds growing
geo-strategic importance and is a high priority of this Administration.²
Presently the US controls three regional commands in Africa, which share
responsibility for US interests in the continent. The largest area is controlled
by the European Command, which oversees North Africa, West Africa including the
Gulf of Guinea, and central and southern Africa. The Central Command is
responsible for the Horn of Africa‹countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Kenya, Djibouti, Sudan and Egypt. The Pacific Command includes Madagascar, the
Seychelles islands and the Indian Ocean area off the African coast.
AFRICOM will initially operate out of the Stuttgart, Germany-based European
Command center before it moves to a permanent base in Africa. The US has been
careful not to spell out its plans, stating only that it will deal with
peacekeeping, humanitarian aid missions, military training and support of
African partner countries.
The US has claimed that it does not plan to engage large numbers of troops in
the region, similar to its operations in Iraq. However, the presence of US
troops will further the militarization of the continent with the possibility
that another conflagration could develop over resources, like that in Iraq, with
wider and more ominous implications.
See Also:
Hu rejects accusations that China has colonial ambitions in Africa
[15 February 2007]
US backs Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia
[28 December 2006]
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