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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Apr 17 2011 - 17:02:49 EDT
Washington's "Long War" against Africa
by Prof. James Petras
http://www.globalresearch.ca/coverStoryPictures2/24354.jpg
<http://www.globalresearch.ca> Global Research, April 17, 2011
The US bombing of Libya in support of rebel clients in the spring of 2011 is
part and parcel of a sustained policy of military intervention in Africa
since at least the mid 1950's.
According to a US Congressional Research Service Study [1] published in
November 2010, Washington has dispatched anywhere between hundreds and
several thousand combat troops, dozens of fighter planes and warships to
buttress client dictatorships or to unseat adversarial regimes in dozens of
countries, almost on a yearly bases.
The record shows the US armed forces intervened 46 times prior to the
current Libyan wars[2]. The countries suffering one or more US military
intervention include the Congo, Zaire, Libya, Chad, Sierra Leone, Somalia,
Rwanda, Liberia, Central African Republic, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya,
Tanzania, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea.
The only progressive intervention was in Egypt under Eisenhower who forced
the Israeli-French-English forces to withdraw from the Suez in 1956.
Between the mid 1950's to the end of the 1970's, only 4 overt military
operations were recorded, though large scale proxy and clandestine military
operations were pervasive. Under Reagan-Bush Sr. (1980-1991) military
intervention accelerated, rising to 8, not counting the large scale
clandestine 'special forces' and proxy wars in Southern Africa. Under the
Clinton regime, US militarized imperialism in Africa took off. Between 1992
and 2000, 17 armed incursions took place, including a large scale invasion
of Somalia and military backing for the Rwanda genocidal regime.[3]
Clinton intervened in Liberia, Gabon, Congo and Sierra Leone to prop up a
long standing stooge regime. He bombed the Sudan and dispatched military
personnel to Kenya and Ethiopia to back proxy clients assaulting Somalia.
Under Bush Jr. 15 US military interventions took place, mainly in Central
and East Africa.
The Obama regime's invasion and bombing of Libya is a continuation of a
longstanding imperial practice designed to enhance US power via the
installation of client regimes, the establishment of military bases and the
training and indoctrination of African mercenary forces dubbed
"collaborative partners". There is no question that there is a rising tide
of imperial militarism in the US over the past several decades.
Most of the US' African empire is disproportionally built on military links
to client military chiefs. The Pentagon has military ties with 53 African
countries (including Libya prior to the current attack). Washington's
efforts to militarize Africa and turn its armies into proxy mercenaries in
putting down anti-imperial revolts and regimes were accelerated after 9/11.
The Bush Administration announced in 2002 that Africa was a "strategic
priority in fighting terrorism".[4] Henceforth, US imperial strategists,
with the backing of liberal and neoconservative congress people, moved to
centralize and coordinate a military policy on a continent wide basis
forming the African Command (AFRICOM). The latter organizes African armies,
euphemistically called "co-operative partnerships," to conduct neo-colonial
wars based on bilateral agreements (Uganda, Burundi, etc.) as well as
'multi-lateral' links with the Organization of African Unity.[5]
AFRICOM despite its assigned role as a vehicle for spreading imperial
influence, has been more successful in destroying countries rather than in
gaining resources and power bases. The war against Somalia, displacing and
killing millions and costing hundreds of millions of dollars, enters its
twentieth year, with no victory in sight. Apart from the longest standing US
neo-colony, Liberia,there is no country willing to allow AFRICOM to set up
headquarters. Most significantly AFRICOM was unprepared for the overthrow of
key client regimes in Tunisia and Egypt - important "partners" in patrolling
the North African Mediterranean, the Arabian coast and the Red Sea. Despite
Libya's collaboration with AFRICOM, especially in "anti-terrorist"
intelligence operations,
Washington mistakenly believed that an easy victory by its "rebel" clients
might lead to a more docile regime, offering more in the way of a military
base, headquarters and a cheap source of oil. Today the US depends as much
on African petroleum as its suppliers in the Middle East. The continent-wide
presence of AFRICOM has been matched by its incapacity to convert
"partnerships" into effective proxy conquerors. The attempt to foster
"civil-military" programs has failed to secure any popular base for corrupt
collaborator regimes, valued for their willingness to provide imperial
cannon fodder.
The continuing North African uprising, overthrew the public face of the
imperial backed dictatorships. As the popular Arab revolt spreads to the
Gulf and deepens its demandsto include socio-economic as well as political
demands the Empire struck back. AFRICOM backed the assault on Libya, the
crackdown on the prodemocracy movement by the ruling military junta in Egypt
and looks to its autocratic "partners" in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula
to drown the civil society movements in a blood bath.
The growing militarization of US Imperial policy in North Africa and the
Gulf is leading to a historic confrontation between the Arab democratic
revolution and the imperial backed satraps; between Libyans fighting for
their independence and the Euro-American navel and air forces ravaging the
country on behalf of their inept local clients.
Notes
1 Lauren Ploch, Africa Command: US strategic Interests and the Role of the
Military in Africa (Congreessional Research Service <CRS> Nov. 16, 2010.
2 Richard Grimmett, Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad
1798-2009 (CRS 2010).
3 Edward Herman "Gilbert Achar's Defense of Humanitarian Intervention" (ZNET
April 8, 2011)
4 The White House, National Security Strategy of the United States
(September 2002).
5 Lauren Ploch, opcit esp pp19-25.
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