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From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Wed Apr 20 2011 - 00:22:56 EDT
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_62817.shtml
Washington's Long War Against Africa
By James Petras. Axis of Logic
Axis of Logic
Monday, Apr 18, 2011
*"As the popular Arab revolt spreads to the Gulf and deepens its demands to
include socio-economic as well as political demands the Empire struck back."
*
*"The record shows the US armed forces intervened 46 times [in Africa]
prior to the current Libyan wars."*
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 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 . The countries suffering one or more US military intervention
include the Congo, Zaine, Libya, Chad, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Ruanda,
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 Ruanda genocidal regime. 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.
*"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)."* 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”. 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.
*"Most significantly AFRICOM was unprepared for the overthrow of key
client regimes in Tunisia and Egypt"* 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 demands to 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.
*READ HIS BIO AND MORE ARTICLES
BY JAMES PETRAS ON AXIS OF
LOGIC*<http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Petras.shtml>
*More Reading: **Nato mission in disarray as criticisms mount. Confusion and
Support for the War on the
Left*<http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_62801.shtml>
<http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_62801.shtml>
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