Who's heard of Africom?

There are so many things about what our government is doing around the world, especially militarily, that most of us are simply not privy to because we just don't care enough to find out or our news agencies are more concerned about Jennifer Aniston's wanting a baby than reporting news essential to our understanding of the world in which we live.


Maybe I'm just out of the loop. Have you ever heard of Africom?

Assuming a negative answer, I'm gonna tell you.

Africom is a new U.S. military command for Africa, established by President George W. Bush in February 2007: it is the Africa Command.


Daniel Volman, writing for AllAfrica.com says that "Throughout the Cold War and for more than a decade afterwards, the U.S. did not have a military command for Africa; instead, U.S. military activities on the continent were conducted by three separate commands: the European Command, which had responsibility for most of the continent; the Central Command, which oversaw Egypt and the Horn of Africa region along with the Middle East and Central Asia; and the Pacific Command, which administered military ties with Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean."

So, why do we need an Africa Command now? Because the Bushites decided that someone had to keep a closer tab on Africa's oil! In fact, "the Bush administration declared that access to Africa's oil supplies would henceforth be defined as a 'strategic national interest' of the United States..."


The question is whether Barack Obama will continue to walk the path laid out by Bush and friends as regards Africa. Indications are that he will, with important reservations. In his response to a questionnaire by the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, Obama said that Africom "should serve to coordinate and synchronize our military activities with our other strategic objectives in Africa."

Part of his reasoning was that "there will be situations that require the United States to work with its partners in Africa to fight terrorism with lethal force." And it will be helpful to have "a unified command operation in Africa" to facilitate such action.

Notice, that Obama spoke of "partners in Africa." In other words, unilateral action is unlikely but nevertheless many are fearful "that the Obama administration will continue to expand the entire spectrum of U.S. military operations in Africa, including increasing U.S. military involvement in the internal affairs of African countries ... and the direct use of U.S. comabat troops to inteervene in African conflicts."


Some folks, however, are re-thinking Africom, including members of Congress. In 2006, the Resist Africom Campaign was formed to educate the American people (boy, they missed me!) about Africom "and to mobilize public and congressional opposition to the creation of the new command."

The Resist Africom Campaign wants Obama to "pursue a policy ... based on a genuine partnership with the people of Africa and on a mulitlateral approach which includes other countries which have an interest in Africa, including China and India -- which promotes sustainable economic development, democracy and human rights, and a new global energy order based on the use of clean, safe, and renewable resources."


Sounds good to me. But, then there's that oil bizness. And we still ain't close to getting over our addiction to black gold.


Read Volman's entire article here.