From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Apr 15 2010 - 10:00:19 EDT
Under the Disguise of Counterterrorism: Obama Expands U.S. Military Ops in
Africa
<http://www.globalresearch.ca> Global Research, April 15, 2010
NAIROBI. Amid a surge in big oil strikes in Africa and the threat of growing
al-Qaida <http://www.upi.com/topic/al-Qaida/> penetration in the north and
east, President Barack Obama <http://www.upi.com/topic/Barack_Obama/> is
expanding U.S. military involvement across the continent.
This has given weight to the U.S. Africa Command inaugurated Oct. 1, 2008,
which is viewed with growing suspicion by many in Africa who consider its
primary mission is to secure oil supplies that America considers vital as it
cuts its reliance on the Middle
<http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/04/06/Obama-expands-US-military-op
s-in-Africa/UPI-39101270577541/##> East.
As of 2008, Africa reportedly surpassed the Middle East as the main oil
supplier to the United States. By 2020, Washington expects one-quarter of
its oil imports will be from Africa.
"When President Obama took office in January 2009, it was widely expected
that he would dramatically change, or even reverse, the militarized and
unilateral society policy that had been pursued by the George W. Bush
administration toward Africa and other parts of the world," Africom critic
Daniel Volman noted in an April 2 report for Inter Press Service.
"After one year in office, however, it is clear that the Obama
administration is following essentially the same policy that has guided the
U.S. military toward Africa for more than a decade.
"Indeed, the Obama administration is seeking to expand U.S. military
activities on the continent even further," wrote Volman, director of the
African Security Research Project.
Many in Africa note that U.S. concern about Africa more or less coincided
with major oil discoveries in West
<http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/04/06/Obama-expands-US-military-op
s-in-Africa/UPI-39101270577541/##> Africa.
They fear what one commentator described as "creeping U.S. militarism" as
has taken place in the Middle East and Asia and America's history of
supporting African tyrants to bolster Western influence during the Cold War.
The expansion of U.S. military activity has spawned fears that Africa was in
line to become the next battleground in the conflict with al-Qaida and its
jihadists.
The Obama administration's fiscal 2011 budget request for security
assistance programs in Africa includes $38 million for arms sales to African
states under the Foreign Military Financing program.
It also wants $21 million for training African officers in the United States
plus $24 million for anti-terrorism programs.
In June 2009 Obama approved the delivery of 40 tons of arms and ammunition
to the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government in war-torn Somalia to
fight Islamist militants linked to al-Qaida.
The United States is also providing military aid to Ethiopia, which helped
install the TFG by invading Somalia in December 2006 and defeating the
Islamists.
The spread of African groups linked to al-Qaida, such as al-Shebab of
Somalia and the Algeria-based al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb, is viewed
with growing concern by the Americans, particularly as the oil factor
assumed great importance.
In this regard, Africom has taken over U.S. security assistance programs
with states grappling with jihadists in North Africa and the Sahara region,
such as Mali, Niger, Chad and Senegal, where military forces are
ill-equipped and led and hard put to counter Islamist encroachment in their
vast, ungoverned spaces.
These are only some of the military projects opening up in Africa.
Africom has stressed that its mission is not combat-oriented. But there is
concern that this will inevitably develop.
Last December U.S. military officials confirmed that the Defense Department
was considering the formation of a 1,000-strong Marine rapid deployment
force for the continent.
One of those could well be Nigeria, which is grappling with a 5-year-old
insurgency in its southern oil-producing zone, the country's economic
backbone, Christian-Muslim bloodletting in the north and a deepening
political crisis over the presidency.
The religious fighting has raised fears that al-Qaida will find Nigeria, one
of Africa's main oil producers and an important supplier to the United
States, fertile ground for infiltration.
The collapse of Africa's most populous nation would threaten U.S. oil
imports and could, according to some analysts, bring down much of oil-rich
West Africa with it.
A 2005 Central Intelligence Agency assessment of Africa's long-term
prospects predicted that "most of Africa will become increasingly
marginalized as many states struggle to overcome sub-par economic
performance, weak state structures and poor governance."
China's growing encroachment on the continent in Beijing's ever-growing
drive for oil, gas and raw materials for its expanding economy is also seen
as a potential threat since the West also wants them. This could lead to
power struggles in a score of African states.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----