Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 23:00:37 +0200
How "Benghazi" Birthed the New Normal in Africa
Posted by <http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/nickturse/> Nick Turse at
8:00am, May 15, 2014.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/tomdispatch>
_at_TomDispatch.
Amid the horrific headlines about the fanatical Islamist sect Boko Haram
that should make Nigerians cringe, here’s a line from a
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/09/boko-haram-us-security-policy-
nigeria-kidnap> recent Guardian article that should make Americans do the
same, as the U.S. military
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_africom_becom
es_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22/> continues its “pivot” to Africa:
“[U.S.] defense officials are looking to Washington’s alliance with Yemen,
with its close intelligence cooperation and CIA drone strikes, as an example
for dealing with Boko Haram.”
In fact, as the latest news reports indicate, that “close” relationship is
proving something less than a raging success. An escalating drone campaign
against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has resulted in numerous
dead “militants,” but also numerous
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175787/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_washington%27
s_wedding_album_from_hell/> dead Yemeni civilians -- and a rising tide of
<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/death-from-above-how-american-dro
ne-strikes-are-devastating-yemen-20140414> resentment against Washington and
possibly
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/world/middleeast/in-yemen-a-counterterror
ism-challenge.html> support for AQAP. As the Washington-Sana relationship
ratchets up, meaning more U.S.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/world/middleeast/yemen-silent-on-disclosu
re-of-shooting-by-americans.html> boots on the ground, more CIA drones in
the skies, and
<http://news.yahoo.com/yemen-braces-qaeda-reprisals-over-army-offensive-1339
42611.html> more attacks on AQAP, the results have been dismal indeed: only
recently, the U.S. embassy in the country’s capital was
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/07/world/africa/yemen-unrest/> temporarily
closed to the public (for fear of attack), the insurgents launched a
<http://www.gulf-times.com/region/216/details/391493/5-yemen-palace-guards-k
illed-in-%E2%80%98qaeda%E2%80%99-attack> successful assault on soldiers
guarding the presidential palace in the heart of that city, oil pipelines
were
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/yemen-oil-export-pipeline-blow
n-up> bombed, electricity in various cities intermittently blacked out, and
an incident, a claimed attempt
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/world/middleeast/us-officers-kill-armed-c
ivilians-in-yemen-capital.html> to kidnap a CIA agent and a U.S. Special
Operations commando from a Sana barbershop, resulted in two Yemeni deaths
(and possibly rising local anger). In the meantime, AQAP seems ever more
audacious and the country ever less stable. In other words, Washington’s
vaunted Yemeni model has been effective so far -- if you happen to belong to
AQAP.
One of the poorer, less resource rich countries on the planet, Yemen is at
least a global backwater. Nigeria is another matter. With the largest
economy in Africa, much oil, and much wealth sloshing around, it has a
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/world/africa/governor-of-nigerias-central
-bank-is-fired-after-warning-of-missing-oil-revenue.html> corrupt
leadership, a
<http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR44/043/2012/en/04ab8b67-8969-4c8
6-bdea-0f82059dff28/afr440432012en.pdf> brutal and
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/05/09/new-accounts-s
uggest-nigerian-army-had-advance-warning-of-boko-harem-kidnapping/>
incompetent military, and an Islamist insurgency in its poverty-stricken
north that, for simple
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nigeria-boko-haram-militants-killed-hundreds-in
-12-hour-raid-on-remote-village/> bestiality, makes AQAP look like a paragon
of virtue. The U.S. has
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/08/nigerian-taliban-us-boko-haram
> aided and trained Nigerian “counterterrorism” forces for years with little
to show. Add in the Yemeni model with drones overhead and who knows how the
situation may spin further out of control.
In response to Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 276 young women, the Obama
administration has already sent in a
<http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/05/u-s-sending-small-military-tea
m-to-nigeria-to-help-plan-search-for-girls-held-by-militants/> small
military team (with FBI, State Department, and Justice Department
representatives included) and launched
<http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-nigeria-schoolgirls/u-s-global-haw
k-drone-joins-search-kidnapped-nigerian-schoolgirls-n104696> drone and "
<http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-nigeria-schoolgirls/united-states-
sending-manned-flights-over-nigeria-look-girls-n103701> manned surveillance
flights," which may prove to be just the first steps in what one day could
become a larger operation. Under the circumstances, it’s worth remembering
that the U.S. has already played a curious role in Nigeria’s
destabilization, thanks to its 2011 intervention in Libya. In the chaos
surrounding the fall of Libyan autocrat Muammar Qaddafi, his immense
arsenals of weapons were looted and soon enough AK-47s, rocket-propelled
grenades, and other light weaponry, as well as the requisite pick-up trucks
mounted with machine guns or
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/13/us-nigeria-islamists-insight-idUS
BRE94C04Q20130513> anti-aircraft guns made
<http://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2013/09/201398104245877469.htm>
their way across an increasingly destabilized region, including into the
hands of Boko Haram. Its militants are far better armed and
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/nigerian-islamist-militants-retu
rn-from-mali-with-weapons-skills/2013/05/31/d377579e-c628-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4
000a_story.html> trained today thanks to post-Libyan developments.
All of this, writes Nick Turse, is but part of what the U.S. military has
started to call the “new normal” in Africa. The only U.S. reporter to
consistently follow the U.S.
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_america%27s_n
on-stop_ops_in_africa/> pivot to that region in recent years, Turse
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_africom_becom
es_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22/> makes clear that every new
African nightmare turns out to be another opening for U.S. military
involvement. Each further step by that military leads to yet
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/nick_turse_blowback_central> more
regional destabilization, and so to a greater urge to bring the Yemeni model
(and its siblings) to bear with... well, you know what effect. Why doesn’t
Washington? Tom
The U.S. Military’s New Normal in Africa
A Secret African Mission and an African Mission that’s No Secret
By <http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/nickturse> Nick Turse
What is Operation New Normal?
It’s a question without an answer, a riddle the U.S. military refuses to
solve. It’s a secret operation in Africa that no one knows anything about.
Except that someone does. His name is Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee
Magee. He lives and breathes Operation New Normal. But he doesn’t want to
breath paint fumes or talk to me, so you can’t know anything about it.
Confused? Stay with me.
Whatever Operation New Normal may be pales in comparison to the real “new
normal” for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The lower-cased variant is bold
and muscular. It’s an expeditionary force on a war footing. To the men
involved, it’s a story of
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s
_non-stop_ops_in_africa> growth and
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s
_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22> expansion, new
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s
_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22> battlefields, “
<http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140419/NEWS08/304190034/In-Shift-Africa-
US-Troops-Find-Complicated-Relationships> combat,” and “
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom_bec
omes_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22> war.” It’s the
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom_bec
omes_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22> culmination of years of
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s
_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22> construction, ingratiation, and
interventions, the fruits of wide-eyed
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s
_non-stop_ops_in_africa> expansion and dismal policy
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_blowback_ce
ntral> failures, the backing of
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_american_pr
oxy_wars_in_africa> proxies to fight America’s battles, while increasing
U.S. personnel and firepower in and around the continent. It is, to quote
an officer with AFRICOM, the blossoming of a “
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom_bec
omes_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22> war-fighting combatant
command.” And unlike Operation New Normal, it’s finally heading for a media
outlet near you.
Ever Less New, Ever More Normal
Since 9/11, the U.S. military has been ramping up missions on the African
continent, funneling money into projects to woo allies, supporting and
training
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_american_pr
oxy_wars_in_africa> proxy forces, conducting humanitarian outreach, carrying
out air strikes and commando raids, creating a sophisticated
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175567/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s
_shadow_wars_in_africa_> logistics network throughout the region, and
building a string of camps, “cooperative security locations,” and
bases-by-other-names.
All the while, AFRICOM
<http://www.voanews.com/content/us-military-pays-close-attention-to-boko-har
am-militants/1681488.html> downplayed the expansion and much of the media,
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-expands-secret-int
elligence-operations-in-africa/2012/06/13/gJQAHyvAbV_story.html> with a few
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/remote-us-base-at-cor
e-of-secret-operations/2012/10/25/a26a9392-197a-11e2-bd10-5ff056538b7c_story
.html> notable
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/in-africa-us-troops-moving-slowl
y-against-joseph-kony-and-his-militia/2012/04/16/gIQAtwMKMT_story.html>
exceptions, played along. With the end of the Iraq War and the drawdown of
combat forces in Afghanistan, Washington has, however, visibly “pivoted” to
Africa and, in recent weeks, many
<http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/16/air-force-sees-resource-shi
ft-as-us-exits-afghanis/> news organizations,
<http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140419/NEWS08/304190034/In-Shift-Africa-
US-Troops-Find-Complicated-Relationships> especially those
<http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20140416/NEWS/304160040/DoD-quietly-ex
panding-AFRICOM-missions> devoted to the
<http://www.navytimes.com/article/20140416/NEWS/304160040/DoD-quietly-expand
ing-AFRICOM-missions> military, have begun
<http://www.janes.com/article/28480/us-develops-new-medevac-technique-for-af
rica-ops> waking up to the
<http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140503/DEFREG04/305030020/US-Deploymen
ts-Africa-Raise-Host-Issues> new normal there.
While daily U.S. troop strength continent-wide hovers in the relatively
modest range of
<http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=5412&utm_so
urce=April+9+2014+EN&utm_campaign=4%2F09%2F2014&utm_medium=email> 5,000 to
<http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140503/DEFREG04/305030020/US-Deploymen
ts-Africa-Raise-Host-Issues> 8,000 personnel, an under-the-radar expansion
has been constant, with the U.S. military now
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_africom%27s_g
igantic_%22small_footprint%22> conducting operations alongside almost every
African military in almost every African country and
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s
_non-stop_ops_in_africa> averaging more than a mission a day.
This increased engagement has come at a continuing cost. When the U.S. and
other allies intervened in 2011 to aid in the ouster of Libyan dictator
Muammar Gaddafi, for instance, it helped set off a chain reaction that led
to a security vacuum
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_blowback_ce
ntral> destabilizing that country as well as neighboring Mali. The latter
saw its elected government
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_blowback_ce
ntral> overthrown by a U.S.-trained officer. The former never recovered and
has tottered toward failed-state status ever since. Local militias have
been
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175831/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_pentago
n%2C_libya%2C_and_tomorrow%27s_blowback_today> carving out fiefdoms, while
killing untold numbers of Libyans -- as well, of course, as U.S. Ambassador
J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in a September 2012 attack
on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, the “cradle” of the Libyan revolution,
whose forces the U.S. had
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175831/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_pentago
n%2C_libya%2C_and_tomorrow%27s_blowback_today> aided with training,
materiel, and military might.
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250045061/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20> Quickly
<http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/01/gop-lawmaker-renews-call-for-sel
ect-committee-on-benghazi/> politicized by Congressional Republicans and
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/megyn-kelly-benghazi-media-collect
ive-yawn_n_3251813.html> conservative news outlets, “
<http://media.theweek.com/img/generic/0502MikeLuckovich_Creators.jpg>
Benghazi” has become a shorthand for many things, including Obama
administration
<http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/04/30/gutfeld-benghazi-media-%E2%80%98will-c
over-cover-cover-up%E2%80%99> cover-ups and
<http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/hillarys-nightmare-the-bengh
azi-industrial-complex-106332.html?ml=po_r#.U2fgTlcmXqE> misconduct, as well
as White House
<http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2013/05/07/president-obamas-benghazi-
lies-unravel> lies and
<http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/01/gop-lawmaker-renews-call-for-sel
ect-committee-on-benghazi/> malfeasance. Missing, however, has been
thoughtful analysis of the implications of American power-projection in
Africa or the possibility that blowback might result from it.
Far from being chastened by the Benghazi deaths or chalking them up to a
failure to imagine the consequences of armed interventions in situations
whose local politics they barely grasp, the Pentagon and the Obama
administration have used Benghazi as a growth opportunity, a means to take
military efforts on the continent to the next level. “Benghazi” has
provided AFRICOM with a beefed-up mandate and new clout. It birthed the new
normal in Africa.
The Spoils of Blowback
Those 2012 killings “changed AFRICOM forever,” Major General Raymond Fox,
commander of the II Marine Expeditionary Force,
<http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=1475>
told attendees of a recent Sea-Air-Space conference organized by the
<http://navyleague.org/aboutus/about_us.html> Navy League, the Marine Corps,
the Coast Guard, and the Merchant Marine. The proof lies in the new
“crisis response” forces that have popped up in and around Africa, greatly
enhancing the regional reach, capabilities, and firepower of the U.S.
military.
Following the debacle in Benghazi, for instance, the U.S. established an
Africa-focused force known as Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task
Force-Crisis Response (
<http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/usmc/spmagtf-cr.htm> SP-MAGTF
CR) to give AFRICOM quick-reaction capabilities on the continent.
“Temporarily positioned” at Morón Air Base in Spain, this rotating unit of
Marines and sailors is officially
<http://www.marforaf.marines.mil/UnitHome/SpecialPurposeMAGTFCrisisResponse.
aspx> billed as “a balanced, expeditionary force with built-in command,
ground, aviation, and logistics elements and organized, trained, and
equipped to accomplish a specific mission.”
Similarly, Benghazi provided the justification for the birthing of another
rapid reaction unit, the Commander’s In-Extremis Force. Long in the
planning stages and
<http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Transcript/10566/transcript-africom-transco
m-commanders-testify-before-senate-armed-services-committee> supported by
the head of the Special Operations Command, Admiral William McRaven, the
Fort Carson, Colorado-based unit -- part of the 10th Special Forces Group --
was sent to Europe
<http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Transcript/10566/transcript-africom-transco
m-commanders-testify-before-senate-armed-services-committee> weeks after
Benghazi. Elements of this specialized
<http://www.stripes.com/news/africom-announces-it-will-have-rapid-reaction-f
orce-1.201162> counterterrorism unit are now “constantly forward deployed,”
AFRICOM spokesman Benjamin Benson told TomDispatch, and stand “ready for the
commander to use, if there’s a crisis.”
The East Africa Response Force (EARF), operating from the lone avowed
American base in Africa -- Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti -- is another new
quick-reaction unit. When asked about EARF, Benson said, “The growing
complexity of the security environment demonstrated the need for us to have
a [Department of Defense]-positioned response force that could respond to
crises in the African region.”
In late December, just days after the 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 18th
Infantry Regiment, out of Fort Riley, Kansas,
<http://www.stripes.com/crisis-response-force-adds-firepower-to-us-base-in-a
frica-1.277535> arrived in Djibouti to serve as the newly christened EARF,
members of the unit were whisked off to South Sudan. Led by EARF’s
commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lee Magee, the 45-man platoon was dispatched
to that restive nation (midwifed into being by the U.S. only a few years
earlier) as it slid toward civil war with armed factions moving close to the
U.S. embassy in the capital, Juba. The obvious fear: another Benghazi.
Joined by elements of the Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task
Force-Crisis Response and more shadowy
<http://www.navytimes.com/article/20131227/NEWS/312270010/3-SEALs-wounded-So
uth-Sudan-back-U-S-> special ops troops, members of EARF helped secure and
reinforce the embassy and
<http://www.stripes.com/crisis-response-force-adds-firepower-to-us-base-in-a
frica-1.277535> evacuate Americans. Magee and most of his troops
<http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140419/NEWS08/304190034/In-Shift-Africa-
US-Troops-Find-Complicated-Relationships> returned to Djibouti in February,
although a few were still serving in South Sudan as recently as
<http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34
502:us-response-force-stands-down-from-south-sudan-embassy-duty&catid=3:Civi
l%20Security&Itemid=113> last month.
South Sudan, a nation the U.S.
<http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/1401
20/how-the-us-lost-south-sudan> poured much time and effort into
<http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2012/01/mil-120111-voa0
2.htm> building, is lurching toward the brink of genocide,
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27245641> according to Secretary of
State John Kerry. With a ceasefire already
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/south-sudanese-army-rebels-blame
-each-other-as-latest-cease-fire-is-quickly-violated/2014/05/11/49e8e6dc-d93
7-11e3-bda1-9b46b2066796_story.html?tid=hpModule_04941f10-8a79-11e2-98d9-301
2c1cd8d1e> in shambles within hours of being signed, the country stands as
another stark foreign policy failure on a
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_blowback_ce
ntral> continent now
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mali-insurgency-follo
wed-10-years-of-us-counterterrorism-programs/2013/01/16/a43f2d32-601e-11e2-a
389-ee565c81c565_story.html> rife with them. But just as Benghazi proved a
useful excuse for dispatching more forward-deployed firepower toward Africa,
the embassy scare in South Sudan acted as a convenient template for future
crises in which the U.S. military would be even more involved. “We’re
basically the firemen for AFRICOM. If something arises and they need troops
somewhere, we can be there just like that,” Captain John Young, a company
commander with the East Africa Response Force,
<http://www.stripes.com/crisis-response-force-adds-firepower-to-us-base-in-a
frica-1.277535> told Stars and Stripes in the wake of the Juba mission.
The New Normal and the Same Old, Same Old
A batch of official Army Africa documents obtained by TomDispatch convinced
me that EARF was intimately connected with Operation New Normal. A July
2013 briefing slide, for instance, references “East Africa Response
Force/New Normal,” while another concerning operations on that continent
mentions “New Normal Reaction Force East.” At the same time, the phrase
“new normal” has been increasingly on the lips of the men running America’s
African ops.
Jason Hyland, a 30-year State Department veteran who serves as Foreign
Policy Advisor to Brigadier General Wayne Grigsby, the commander of Combined
Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), for instance,
<http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:n8i9piP9regJ:www.hoa.a
fricom.mil/story/7841/foreign-policy-advisorrsquos-experience-knowledge-vita
l-to-cjtfhoa-mission+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us> told an interviewer that the
task force “is at the forefront in this region in implementing U.S. policy
on the ‘new normal’ to protect our missions when there are uncertain
conditions.”
A news release from CJTF-HOA concerning the Juba operation also used the
phrase: “While the East Africa Response Force was providing security for the
embassy, additional forces were required to continue the evacuation mission.
Under the auspices of ‘the new normal,’ which refers to the heightened
threat U.S. Embassies face throughout the world, the SP-MAGTF CR arrived
from Morón, Spain,”
<http://www.hoa.africom.mil/story/7976/sp-magtf-cr-redeploys-to-mor-n-spain>
wrote Technical Sergeant Jasmine Reif.
Earlier this year in Seapower magazine, the commander of Special-Purpose
Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response, Colonel Scott Benedict,
<http://www.seapowermagazine.org/stories/20140210-magtf.html> described the
“new normal” as a world filled with “a lot of rapidly moving crises,”
requiring military interventions and likened it to the Marine Corps
deployments in the so-called
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/21/books/review/21SCHWART.html> Banana Wars
in Central America and the Caribbean in the early twentieth century.
On a visit to Camp Lemonnier, Marine commandant General James Amos echoed
the same sentiments,
<http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Jan/03/marines-sudan-crisis-response/1/
> calling his troops “America’s insurance policy.” Referencing the Marine
task force, he invoked that
<http://voices.mydesert.com/2014/01/31/commandant-of-the-marine-corps-gen-ja
mes-f-amos-talks-global-security-national-defense-priorities/> phrase in an
even more expansive way. Aside from “winning battles” in Afghanistan, he
<http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Jan/03/marines-sudan-crisis-response/2/
?#article-copy> said, the creation of that force was “probably the most
significant thing we’ve done in the last year-and-a-half as far as adjusting
the Marine Corps for what people are now calling the new normal, which are
these crises that are happening around the world.”
In March, Brigadier General Wayne Grigsby explicitly noted that the phrase
meant far more than simple embassy security missions. “Sitting in Djibouti
is really the new normal,” the CJTF-HOA commander
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXNmRezHvR4> said. (He was, in fact, sitting
in an office in that country.) “It’s not the new normal... as far as
providing security for our threatened embassies. It’s really the new normal
on how we’re going to operate as a [Department of Defense entity] in
supporting the national security strategy of our country.”
Operation New Normal and the Incredible Disappearing Lee Magee
With so many officials talking about the “new normal” and with documents
citing a specific operation sporting the same name, I called up AFRICOM’s
media chief Benjamin Benson looking for more information. “I don’t know the
name new normal,” he told me. “It isn’t a term we’re using to define one of
the operations.”
That seemed awfully curious. An official military document obtained by
TomDispatch explicitly noted that U.S. troops would be deployed as part of
Operation New Normal in 2014. The term was even used, in still another
document, alongside other code-named operations like Juniper Micron and
Observant Compass, missions to aid the
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/> French and African interventions
in Mali and to <http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do> degrade or destroy
Joseph Kony’s murderous
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/nation/2013/09/12/operation-observant-compass
-kony/2804225/> Lord’s Resistance Army in central Africa.
Next, I got in touch with Lieutenant Colonel Glen Roberts at CJTF-HOA and
explained that I wanted to know about Operation New Normal. His response
was effusive and unequivocal: I should speak with Lee Magee -- that is
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/world/africa/us-mission-in-south-sudan-sh
ows-limits-of-military.html?_r=0> Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee Magee, a
West Point graduate, third-generation Army officer, and commander of the
East African Response Force who had deployed to South Sudan as the nation
shattered on the rocks of reality. “He lives this concept and has executed
it,” was how Roberts put it.
Was I available to talk to Magee the next day? Yes, indeed.
On March 27th, the day of the proposed interview, however, a lower-ranking
public affairs official got in touch to explain that Lieutenant Colonel
Magee could not speak to me and Lieutenant Colonel Roberts was out of the
office. I asked to reschedule for the next day. The spokesman said he
didn’t know what their calendars looked like, but that Roberts was expected
back later that day. I left a message, but heard nothing.
The next morning, I called the press office in Djibouti and asked to speak
to Magee. He wasn’t there. No one was. Everyone had left work early. The
reason? “Paint fumes.”
That was a new one.
Another follow-up and Roberts finally got back in touch. “Apologies, but I
am no longer able to arrange an interview with Magee,” he informed me.
“Thanks for understanding.”
But I didn’t understand and told him so. After all, Magee was the man who
lived and executed the new normal. I thought we were set for an interview.
What happened?
“He has simply declined an interview, as is his privilege,” was the best
Roberts could do. Magee had been dropped into the hot zone in South Sudan
to forestall the next Benghazi, and had previously
<http://www.stripes.com/crisis-response-force-adds-firepower-to-us-base-in-a
frica-1.277535> spoken with other
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/world/africa/us-mission-in-south-sudan-sh
ows-limits-of-military.html?_r=1> media outlets about his work in Africa,
but conversing with me about Operation New Normal was apparently beyond the
pale. Or maybe it had something to do with those paint fumes.
On March 31st, Roberts told me that he could answer the questions by email
-- questions that I had already sent in on March 17th. But no response
came. I followed up again. And again. And again. I sent the questions a
second time.
As of publication, almost two months after my initial inquiry, no word yet.
That, evidently, is the new normal, too.
The Real New Normal
Quite obviously, the U.S. military isn’t eager to talk about Operation New
Normal, which -- despite Benjamin Benson’s contentions, Lee Magee’s silence,
and Glen Roberts’ disappearance -- is almost certainly the name for a U.S.
military mission in East Africa that, U.S. documents suggest, is tied to the
Benghazi-birthed East African Response Force.
More important than uncovering the nature of Operation New Normal, however,
is recognizing the real new normal in Africa for the U.S. military:
ever-increasing missions across the continent -- now
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s
_non-stop_ops_in_africa> averaging about 1.5 per day -- ever more engagement
with local
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_american_pr
oxy_wars_in_africa> proxies in ever more African countries, the construction
of ever more new facilities in ever more countries (including plans for a
possible new compound in Niger), and a string of bases
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom_bec
omes_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22> devoted to surveillance
activities spreading across the northern tier of Africa. Add to this
impressive build-up the three new rapid reaction forces, specialized teams
like a
<http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/07/us-team-military-personnel-feder
al-agency-experts-to-reach-nigeria-in-coming/> contingent of AFRICOM
personnel and officials from the FBI and the departments of Justice, State,
and Defense created to help
<http://www.stripes.com/news/africa/pentagon-outlines-plans-to-help-rescue-k
idnapped-girls-in-nigeria-1.281876> rescue hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls
kidnapped by members of the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, and other
shadowy quick-response units like the seldom-mentioned
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s
_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22> Naval Special Warfare Unit 10.
“Having resources [on the continent] that are ready for a response is
really valuable,” Benson told me when talking about the Djibouti-based EARF.
The same holds for the U.S. military’s new normal in Africa: more of
everything valuable to a military seeking a new mission in the wake of two
fading, none-too-successful wars.
The Benghazi killings, unrest in South Sudan, and now the Boko Haram
kidnappings have provided the U.S. with ways to bring a long-running “light
footprint in Africa” narrative into line with a far heavier reality. Each
crisis has provided the U.S. with further justification for publicizing a
steady expansion on that continent that’s been underway but under wraps for
years. New forces, new battlefields, and a new openness about a new “war,”
to
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom_bec
omes_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22> quote one of the men waging it.
That’s the real new normal for the U.S. military in Africa -- and you don’t
need to talk to Lieutenant Colonel Lee Magee to know it.
Nick Turse is the managing editor of <http://www.tomdispatch.com/>
TomDispatch.com and a fellow at the Nation Institute. A 2014
<http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/independentmedia/docs/2014Izzyprogram/> Izzy
Award winner, his pieces have appeared in the
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/opinion/for-america-life-was-cheap-in-vie
tnam.html?_r=0> New York Times, the
<http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/24/opinion/la-oe-turse-afghanistan-and
-vietnam-20120424> Los Angeles Times, and
<http://www.thenation.com/afghanistan> the Nation, at the
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23427726> BBC and
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175635/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_a_war_victi
m%27s_question_only_you_can_answer/> regularly at TomDispatch. He is the
author most recently of the New York Times bestseller
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250045061/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20> Kill
Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam (now out in
paperback).
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/operationnewnormal_large.jpg>
Click here to see a larger version
http://www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/operationnewnormal_small.jpg
>From a 2013 U.S. Army Africa briefing slide referencing Operation New
Normal.
(image/jpeg attachment: image003.jpg)