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AFRICOM: African Officers to be Invited to Serve in New US Africa Command
Posted by: Guest Author on June 23, 2008 Under: Africa, Community Report, Discussion Lounge, Podcast, USA
Muti ThisPODCAST: The chief of the new U.S. military command for Africa [AFRICOM] says he will invite African military officers to serve at his headquarters, once the operation gets up and running. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Al Pessin interviewed the commander, General William Ward.
Take a listen:
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Xcroc | Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
I listened to this twice. It contained pretty much the same talking points they have had all along. One problem AFRICOM has is that it has to deny the main reasons it was created, oil, “terrorism”, and China. So everything else it says does not really make sense.
When they talk about just some offices, what will those offices do? What will they coordinate? Keep in mind the US corporations in Africa for the oil and natural resources, and the PMCs, the mercenary corporations, who will be there to serve their interests.
As far as involving African officers, they are already doing that, inviting officers from countries already friendly to the US to participate in conferences. They do not invite anyone who might express a dissenting view. What they want from African military is surrogates to do any fighting they want done so the US does not need to do it.
And when Ward talks about no permanent troops stationed, that begs the question. Nowadays they don’t station huge numbers of troops. They keep huge numbers of troops rotating in and out. No troops are permanent. But the US military presence in their “cooperative security locations” is huge and permanent.
In fact Africa, with some UN assistance, is doing far better in this century at solving African problems than any interventions by the US or EU. See the report Human Security Brief on Africa.
AFRICOM, with the huge influx of mercenaries that are being planned, will be intensely destabilizing.