Exclusive: The Pentagon Plans for an African Command

[Swiss Miss]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...328840,00.html

The Pentagon is close to approving a command for Africa, where poverty and corruption make it a vulnerable area for extremists and terrorists
By SALLY B. DONNELLY

In what may be the most glaring admission that the U.S. military needs to dramatically readjust how it will fight what it calls 'the long war,' the Pentagon is expected to announce soon that it will create an entirely new military command to focus on the globe's most neglected region: Africa.

Pentagon sources say that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is close to approving plans for an African Command, which would establish a military organization to singlehandedly deal with the entire continent of Africa. It would be a sign of a significant strategic shift in administration policy, reflecting the need to put more emphasis on pro-active, preventative measures rather than maintaining a defensive posture designed for the Cold War.

The Pentagon has five geographic Unified Combatant Commands around the world and responsibility for Africa is awkwardly divided among three of those: European Command, Pacific Command and Central Command — which is also responsible for running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Creating an African Command would be an important structural move to coordinate US defense policy for the continent, as well as provide a single military organization for agencies like the State Department and the CIA to work with in the region.

A defense source says the new command, which is part of Rumsfeld's ongoing worldwide reassessment of the military's division of labor, may be headed by Gen. William 'Kip' Ward, a respected officer who is the Army's only four star African-American general. Ward has boots-on-the-ground experience in Africa: he was a commander during the U.S.'s ill-fated mission in Somalia in 1993 and also served as a military representative in Egypt in 1998. Ward is currently the deputy commander at European Command, and as such oversees US military relations with 43 African countries.

But a former military officer who thinks highly of Ward nonetheless says creating an entirely new command compounds an existing problem. " The size and number of headquarters already is skewed too far in favor of 'tail' at the expense of warfighting 'teeth.' Want to increase 'boots on the ground?' Eliminate or downsize some of these staffs, don't create more," says this observer.

Many military experts have long advocated paying more attention to Africa. While Central Command has had a small military contingent based in Djibouti (called Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa or 'CJTF-HOA') for several years, intelligence agencies and military officers have warned that the US should be spending more time and money in Africa.

Gen. John Abizaid, the Centcom commander, laid out a laundry list of concerns to the Senate Armed Services Committee last March. While Abizaid spoke about the Horn of Africa, the threats stretch across much of the continent. "The Horn of Africa is vulnerable to penetration by regional extremist groups, terrorist activity, and ethnic violence. Al Qaeda has a history of planning, training for, and conducting major terrorist attacks in this region, such as the bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The volatility of this region is fueled by a daunting list of challenges, to include extreme poverty, corruption, internal conflicts, border disputes, uncontrolled borders and territorial waters, weak internal security capabilities, natural disasters, famine, lack of dependable water sources, and an underdeveloped infrastructure. The combination of these serious challenges creates an environment that is ripe for exploitation by extremists and criminal organizations."

Abizaid did point out that small operation in Djibouti has produced bang for the buck: "Working closely with U.S. Embassy personnel in the region, CJTF-HOA assists partner governments in building indigenous capacity to deny terrorists access to their territory. This not only includes training local security and border forces, but also involves assisting with low-level civic projects throughout HOA such as digging wells, building schools and distributing books, and holding medical and veterinary clinics in remote villages." These efforts, Abizaid said, engender goodwill and help "discredit extremist propaganda and bolster local desires and capabilities to defeat terrorists before they can become entrenched."

[Kevin]

Sounds good lol, Africa definitely needs help from other Goverments. Especially countries like Uganda, where all the child abductions and murders are taking place. It's a good start, but Africa's gunna be a tough one, I hope this works out good for all the African people.

[DansDarkSide]

Ok how should I start this off.....

I don't think they should make this. The military is to small as it is. I mean if you have to con someone into having to pay for the education so they can spend a couple of years in the armed forces thats bad. My dad called me the other day and said the Army sent him a letter that said they would front him $10,000 and give him his rank back if he would rejoin the Army. Now keep in mind my father is a 49 year old man on disability. And by the Army saying they would give a old man that much money and his old rank witch was Master Sergeant is kinda sad. Now I can understand if they moved one command center there but I think it would be a unwise thing to make a new command there. I think if they would wait till Bush is out of office and the troops moral was alot high and there are more recruits comming into the armed forces then going out then it would be a good time. But righ now I think we should worry more about things that are under our control insted of trying to creat more stuff that we have to worry about. More battle feilds that our soilders can die on.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by DansDarkSide

Ok how should I start this off.....

I don't think they should make this. The military is to small as it is. I mean if you have to con someone into having to pay for the education so they can spend a couple of years in the armed forces thats bad. My dad called me the other day and said the Army sent him a letter that said they would front him $10,000 and give him his rank back if he would rejoin the Army. Now keep in mind my father is a 49 year old man on disability. And by the Army saying they would give a old man that much money and his old rank witch was Master Sergeant is kinda sad. Now I can understand if they moved one command center there but I think it would be a unwise thing to make a new command there. I think if they would wait till Bush is out of office and the troops moral was alot high and there are more recruits comming into the armed forces then going out then it would be a good time. But righ now I think we should worry more about things that are under our control insted of trying to creat more stuff that we have to worry about. More battle feilds that our soilders can die on.

Well I closely follow whats going on in some parts of Africa and I can tell you, some of the different parts of the continent definitely need some help. Theres so many rebels everywhere that everyone in alot of countries are hiding all day and all night. We might think we should wait, but the people in Africa dont exactly have a lot of time

[DansDarkSide]

I can understand that, but I think we should take care of our problems before we take care of other peoples problems.

[Swiss Miss]

I guess I can see both sides of the issue but when I hear things like "we should take care of our problems before we take care of other peoples problems." (sorry to use you as an example here, DansDarkSide) it kind of reveals how much of a selfish mindset we have sometimes.

The poorest of our poor here in America's lives would be like living in a 5-star resort to some of the people in Africa which is what I think, as Kevin said, needs to be the focus of some of the other parts of the world that do in fact have it better off. The people are plagued by diseases and violence and it's an incredibly sad state of affairs there. Even worse is that they have nowhere to look to within their own "governments" for aid. I know about Darfur in particular which is a little known situation that is a complete TRAGEDY and is often times overlooked when evaluating the focus of today's problems. (http://www.savedarfur.org/situation/)

But on the other hand, I can see where you're coming from when you say we should take care of our own problems. I mean, here we have people that can't even afford to live on minimum wage in this country and our government seems to be just giving the money that could help these sorts of people out away to some other situations that doesn't even concern us. But I take a more Libertarian standpoint to this and feel that we shouldn't live our lives in America expecting Government aid to come in and save the day every time. Whether it's a corporation or individuals, everyone in this country has the privelage to live high-risk lives with the mindset of "hey, if we fail, good ol' Uncle Sam will dig me out of my hole".

That just isn't the way it should be!

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right, make `em clean up the corruption an' stand on their own two feet - we got a depression we gonna have to deal with...

Reducing US Foreign Aid Will Help Africa, Scholars Say
April 03, 2008 - Scholars participating in a panel discussion at the libertarian Cato Institute Wednesday called for a partial divestment of aid to troubled African states as a solution to that continent's many problems. One scholar said the foreign aid is so damaging that he hopes to see more of it stolen by corrupt government officials.

"If someone really cared about Africa, they would do the very opposite of what we have done so far," said panelist Edward N. Luttwak, senior associate at the Center for International and Strategic Studies. "Foreign aid blocks the emergence of organic entities which are waiting to emerge and gives the government legitimacy. "I wish there was more corruption in Sudan," he said. "If it's wasted, it does less harm. Somebody takes the money, feeds his family, and [that] means that there are less soldiers running around with weapons shooting each other."

The other panelists at the discussion, entitled "Let Failing African Governments Collapse: A Radical Solution to Underdevelopment," included:

Vicki Huddleston, a visiting fellow with the liberal Brookings Institution, told Cybercast News Service that the idea that foreign aid damages Africa is nonsensical. Also, the panel's view of how aid is distributed in Africa demonstrates "ignorance" about what's really happening, she said. "We do it very well - the money - and for the most part we oversee it, there is accountability, and we know how it is being used," Huddleston said. "Most of it is going to much-respected, well-known organizations." Huddleston said that in Sudan, for instance, most of the money is going to run refugee camps.

Mauro De Lorenzo, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, argued that sending foreign aid to Africa relieves leaders there of responsibility to their own taxpayers. "If you are getting money from the people you are representing, you are much more likely to treat them well than if you are getting it from the United States," he said.

George Ayittey, an economics professor at American University, said that beyond the damage our foreign aid does to the continent, Africa has plenty of its own resources that could be exploited to help its own people instead of Western money. "The foreign aid resources that Africa needs can be found within Africa itself," Ayittey said. "Africa does not really need our aid."

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[waltky]

What is the African command doing about it?...

Kenyan Children Abducted, Tortured
Jun. 24, 2008 : Hundreds Of Kenyan Kids Caught Between Brutal Militia, Kenyan Army

Dozens of scared children filed silently into the bare room, their eyes on the cracks in the floor. One by one, in low voices, they told of being tortured by the Kenyan army because they were suspected of aiding rebels. They told of being beaten and made to shake hands with corpses. They told of being forced to crawl through barbed wire tunnels and of genitals squeezed by pliers. Then the children took off their shirts. White scars crisscrossed the dark skin on their backs like grains of rice. Some were still bleeding.

These children are among hundreds in western Kenya who have been terrorized, many twice over, first by a militia in their villages and then by the army sent to fight it. The militia forced children as young as 10 to become soldiers. In a widespread crackdown, the army then rounded up the children and thousands of adults and tortured them, human rights groups say. The Associated Press interviewed some of the children in a detention center, brought in by a human rights advocate without the knowledge of government officials or the military. The children have been held since April on charges of promoting warlike activities. Their identities and location are withheld to protect them from reprisals.

In March, the Kenyan government sent its army to crack down on the Sabaot Land Defense Force militia, which is named after the Sabaot region. But instead of hunting down militia fighters where they hide in the forests of Mount Elgon, the army swept up thousands of men and boys from the surrounding villages. Since then, so many reports of murder and torture have emerged that Kenya's state-run human rights commission is calling for the prosecution of the defense minister and top army and police officials. There are also calls for the United States and Britain to suspend millions of dollars in aid and training to the Kenyan army.

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