http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2014/04/16/African-adventure/stories/201404160002
African adventure: The Pentagon pursues a costly, risky expansion
April 15, 2014 8:53 PM
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Defense Department's Africa Command, created in 2008, continues to
expand U.S. military activities in Africa, now in at least 18 countries.
The operations are taking place in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central
African Republic, Chad, Djibouti (which hosts a major U.S. base), Ethiopia,
Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Niger, Senegal, the Seychelles, Somalia, South
Sudan, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda. The United States has operated drones out
of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Niger and the Seychelles. A U.S.-trained officer led
a coup d'etat in Mali in 2012.
Last month a U.S. Special Operations force commandeered a tanker in
international waters that Libyan rebels were attempting to use to export
Libyan oil for their own profit. The armed intervention was carried out at
the request of the shaky Libyan government and responded to the desires of
American oil companies operating in Libya. A parallel use of U.S. military
forces to protect the assets of American oil companies is the guard
function they carry out on a pipeline in Colombia, South America.
In March President Barack Obama authorized the insertion of U.S. forces
into Central Africa to aid the Ugandan military in so far unsuccessful
efforts to track down the Lord's Resistance Army of Joseph Kony. This
action was taken in spite of previous failures to trap the LRA and public
criticism of the Ugandan government of President Yoweri Museveni for a law
that its legislature has passed and he has signed that is sharply
discriminatory against homosexuals.
It is difficult to argue that America has important strategic interests in
any of these countries. Absent the agreement of any African nation to the
establishment of a U.S. Africa Command headquarters on its soil, it remains
based in Stuttgart, Germany.
It is hard to fathom why U.S. military activity is on the rise in Africa,
but it may be driven to a degree by Pentagon fears that its budget will be
cut in the post-Iraq and post-Afghanistan era, now that Americans are tired
of distant wars. The problem is the activity is expensive -- planned
expansion of the Djibouti base alone is estimated to cost $750 million --
and it risks involving the United States in unnecessary military
adventures. Someone needs to "red pencil" the expansion before it proceeds
further.
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Received on Sat Apr 19 2014 - 15:03:42 EDT