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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Mar 22 2011 - 19:09:35 EST
Libya: NATO's African War
The Role of US Africa Command (AFRICOM)
by Rick Rozoff
http://www.globalresearch.ca/coverStoryPictures2/23813.jpg
<http://www.globalresearch.ca> Global Research, March 22, 2011
Following similar developments in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt,
anti-government protests began in Libya on February 15. On March 19 the
U.S., France and Britain delivered air and cruise missile attacks against
targets in Libya: 112 Tomahawk missile strikes from U.S. and British
submarines and warships in the Mediterranean Sea and attacks by French
warplanes on what were identified as government military vehicles on the
ground.
Twenty French Rafale and Mirage jet fighters took to the country's skies and
U.S. stealth bombers delivered 40 payloads to its main airfield.
A Russian parliamentarian pointed out that the attack on Libya represented
the fourth country targeted for armed assault - the fourth war launched - by
the U.S. and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 12
years: The current one, codenamed Operation Odyssey Dawn, and Operation
Allied Force in Yugoslavia in 1999, Operation Enduring Freedom in
Afghanistan in 2001 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq in 2003. The
beginning of the war against Libya occurred on the eighth anniversary of the
attack on Iraq and five days before the twelfth anniversary of that against
Yugoslavia.
However, whereas it took several months for the U.S. and its NATO allies to
selectively identify developments in Yugoslavia (Kosovo) and Iraq as crises
requiring international attention before proclaiming them grounds for war,
with Libya the process has been reduced to a month's duration. The slaying
of unarmed civilian protesters in Yemen and Bahrain has not evoked a
comparable outcry and has not produced analogous military actions from
Western military powers.
This time equipped with a United Nations Resolution, 1973, passed in the
Security Council with the BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China -
and Germany in opposition, the U.S. and its NATO partners are prepared for
an indefinite conflict more closely resembling that in Afghanistan, which
will be ten years old in less than seven months, than the wars against
Yugoslavia and Iraq.
Despite opposition from the BRIC nations, since yesterday echoed by the
53-nation African Union, the 22-member Arab League and several Latin
American nations like Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, Washington and
its allies are portraying their attack against Libya as an international
effort - because the West has recruited the kings of Morocco and Jordan and
the emirs of Qatar and Abu Dhabi as allies in what is presented as a
humanitarian campaign to bring democracy to an Arab nation.
In the current reincarnation of the "humanitarian war" model of the 1990s,
an estimated 65 Libyan civilians were killed and 150 wounded on the first
day of the bombing onslaught. Oil depots and a medical facility were among
the targets of bombing and missile attacks.
President Barack Obama was in Brazil at the start of the attacks, and by
rights should have been declared persona non grata and expelled for his role
in ordering U.S. Tomahawk strikes and bombing runs.
If anyone had doubted that it was possible to out-Herod Herod in surpassing
his predecessor George W. Bush's record of waging military aggression
internationally, that illusion should be finally laid to rest. The Obama
administration has increased American troop strength in Afghanistan (which
has become the longest war in U.S. history on Obama's watch) to 100,000,
with another 50,000 foreign forces serving under NATO's International
Security Assistance Force.
It has also massively escalated unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) strikes in
Pakistan, killing nearly 2,000 people in the last 26 months, including over
80 civilians slain in 12 missile strikes, the deadliest on a tribal meeting,
in North Waziristan only two days before the attack on Libya was launched.
The U.S. is a far better candidate for an international no-fly zone than any
other nation in the world.
The Obama government has launched cruise missile strikes and run special
forces operations in Yemen and conducted a deadly helicopter raid in
Somalia.
It has also acquired the use of seven military bases in Colombia to assist
the decades-long counterinsurgency war in the country and to threaten
neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador.
The rapidity with which the U.S. and its NATO cohorts built the case for the
attack on Libya should be cause for serious concern to the last two South
American nations, as it should for Bolivia, Nicaragua and Syria and for
former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's "outposts of tyranny": Belarus,
Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea and Zimbabwe.
Last year NATO airlifted thousands of Ugandan troops to and from Somalia for
the war in that country (its civilian counterpart, the European Union, is
training Somali government troops in Uganda) and is currently conducting a
naval operation off the Horn of Africa, Ocean Shield, but the ongoing attack
on Libya is the Atlantic Alliance's first direct war in Africa.
It is also the first war for the newest Pentagon overseas military command,
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).
AFRICOM spokesman Lieutenant Commander James Stockman boasted that American
and British missiles hit at least 20 of 22 intended targets in Libya on
March 19, and newly appointed AFRICOM chief General Carter Ham pledged to
"degrade the Qadhafi regime's capability" under his command's Joint Task
Force Odyssey Dawn the same day.
Taking part in the attacks were the U.S. submarines USS Florida, USS
Providence and USS Scranton, guided missile destroyers USS Barry and USS
Stout, amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, amphibious transport dock USS
Ponce, flagship of the Mediterranean-based Sixth Fleet USS Mount Whitney,
B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, AV-8B Harrier II ground-attack aircraft and
EA-18G Growler electronic warfare planes.
The USS Bataan helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ship and USS Whidbey
Island dock landing ship are on their way to the coast of Libya.
The U.S. maintains 42 F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighters at the Aviano Air
Base in Italy and has the use of two air bases in Bulgaria and one in
Romania.
The USS Enterprise carrier strike group, with 80 planes, is in the Arabian
Sea and can cross back through the Suez Canal for action against Libya.
The above is to be recalled as the White House continues to disavow a
direct, much less a leading, role in the war.
Although to date not formally a NATO operation, the air and sea campaign
against Libya began with the Alliance subjecting the targeted country to
around-the-clock surveillance by Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)
aircraft assigned to the nearly ten-year-old Operation Active Endeavor naval
surveillance and interdiction mission. NATO's E-3A AWACS planes fly at a
height of 30,000 feet and cover a range of 120,000 square miles.
The military buildup in the Mediterranean Sea by other NATO nations matches
that of the U.S.
In addition to 20 warplanes flying over Libya, on March 20 France deployed
the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, the only non-American
nuclear-powered carrier, from its base in Toulon for air strikes against
Libya.
Britain has warships and a submarine off the coast of Libya which
participated in the first round of missile strikes. The BBC reported that
London has also deployed Eurofighter Typhoon and Tornado warplanes and
Nimrod surveillance aircraft to the region.
Canada, whose prime minister Stephen Harper has identified the attacks on
Libya as "acts of war" while acknowledging that Libyan civilians will be
killed by them, has sent the HMCS Charlottetown frigate to the area and has
deployed six CF-18 Hornet multirole jet fighters to Italy for air patrols
over Libya. Defence Minister Peter MacKay has stated that the Charlottetown
is available to assist in enforcing a naval blockade of the North African
country.
Norway has committed six F-16 jet fighters and Belgium eight F-16s, a
frigate and 200 military personnel in an effort to, in the words of Defense
Minister Pieter De Crem, "topple the Gaddafi regime."
The Belgian F-16s are currently in Greece and the warship in the
Mediterranean, with European Affairs Minister Olivier Chastel stating his
government has decided to "tell NATO that we are available, offer what we
have and wait for a common command."
Spain has provided four F-18 jet fighters, a maritime surveillance plane, a
submarine and a frigate in addition to turning over to NATO its military
bases at Rota and Moron de la Frontera in the south of the country.
Italy has offered eight combat aircraft and the use of seven bases on its
mainland and in Sardinia and Sicily for the war effort. It has also
activated five ships, including the Andrea Doria destroyer, for action
against Libya.
Denmark has six F-16s in Italy prepared for deployment to Libya.
According to the Sabah newspaper, Turkey will also supply F-16s for NATO's
Libyan campaign.
Greece has provided the U.S. and NATO the use of bases at Aktio and Souda
Bay in Crete.
More military assets are being added by NATO nations almost hourly, which
indicates that a no-fly zone is the least of Western plans for Libya and
that the campaign is not expected to end in the foreseeable future.
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