US Africa policy will remain imperialistic
Abayomi Azikiwe
2012-12-08
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Africa will continue to be exploited, pillaged, plundered and militarized by
the US administration led by Barack Obama as he continues to serve
neoliberal imperialist interests.
With the re-election of Barack Obama as president of the leading imperialist
state in the world, the foreign policy orientation of the second
administration will continue along the same trajectory of exploitation of
the labour and resources of oppressed peoples and the intensification of
militarism in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and other geo-political
regions. The Obama administration enhanced the role of the United States
Africa Command (AFRICOM), started under the Bush presidency, and led the war
of regime-change against the oil-rich nation of Libya, resulting in the
brutal assassination of martyred leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi.
During the campaign and debates, Obama claimed that he had ended the war in
Iraq and was winding down the occupation of Afghanistan. Yet there is never
any discussion over the unjust characters of both the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq and the social impact of these military operations on the people in
Central Asia and the Arabian Peninsula.
US WARS IN MIDDLE EAST
In Iraq and Afghanistan over 7,000 US and NATO forces have lost their lives
and hundreds of thousands of others have been wounded, injured and
psychologically impaired. Estimates of deaths among Iraqis have exceeded one
million and in relationship to Afghanistan and Pakistan combined, hundreds
of thousands have perished.
Millions have been displaced by both the Iraq and Afghan occupations.
Societal damage to these nations will take years to repair. In Iraq
sectional conflict is still taking place with regular bombings which kill
dozens of people in a single day.
The upsurges in Egypt and Tunisia during 2011 shook up the US and its allies
in the region, however, the governments which have come to power have not
fundamentally changed their relationships with imperialism. Palestine is
still under Israeli siege despite a new government in Egypt and the regime
in Tunisia was compelled to turn over the former prime minister of Libya to
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) installed junta in Libya.
INTERVENTION IN HAITI
In regard to Haiti, the US, France and Canada invaded the Caribbean nation
in February 2004 and later turned over the occupation to the United Nations.
Haiti's duly-elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide was kidnapped and
forced into exile at the aegis of the US.
When the Obama administration took power in 2009, it maintained the same
policy towards Haiti and later lifted a deportation order allowing Haitians
to remain in the US In the aftermath of the earthquake in January 2010, the
US administration under Obama failed to provide adequate reconstruction
assistance as hundreds of thousands of people remain homeless and
impoverished. Although Aristide has returned to Haiti, he has not been
allowed to assume his office despite the fact that he has the largest
political following inside the country.
As a result of imperialist war, the economic damage done to the world
capitalist system has been enormous. The economies of Iraq, Afghanistan,
Libya, Pakistan and Haiti have been devastated.
Unemployment in the western industrialized states has not been as high since
the Great Depression of the 1930s. Poverty and social misery is increasing
even within the advanced capitalist countries.
IMPERIALIST MILITARISM WILL ESCALATE IN AFRICA
Under the Obama administration the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia has
become an outpost of US imperialism. With a military base in neighbouring
Djibouti at Camp Lemonier, the Somalia nation is the staging ground for
military operations against the Islamist resistance movement Al-Shabab.
At present over 17,000 US-backed troops from the African Union Mission to
Somalia (AMISOM) are stationed in Somalia. These troops are trained and
financed by the Pentagon with full political support of the White House.
Somalia is a source of growing oil exploration. In the breakaway northern
region of Puntland, oil is already being extracted by Canadian and British
firms.
In fact throughout the entire regions of East and Central Africa, new
findings of oil, natural gas and various strategic minerals are fuelling the
increased presence of transnational corporations and military forces from
the US, Britain, Israel and the European Union. Under the guise of fighting
'terrorism' and 'piracy', flotillas of warships, drones and fighter aircraft
are flooding into the area.
The presence of US and other imperialist states in Central and East Africa
has not stabilized the political situation at all. The plight of the people
has actually worsened under the Obama administration with widespread
dislocation in Somalia and Ethiopia as well as the spreading of the war into
Kenya.
US INTERVENTION IN EAST AFRICA
Kenya has deployed several thousand of its defence forces in southern
Somalia at the behest of the US administration. The southern Somalia port
city of Kismayo has been seized by the Kenya Defense Forces and AMISOM.
In Sudan, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) bombed the country in late October. A
military factory was targeted at the same time that Sudan and Iran were
engaging in joint military exercises around Port Sudan.
This was not the first time that Israel had bombed Sudan. These provocations
are also designed to send a clear message to Iran, that Israel can strike
the country.
Sudan is still under sanctions imposed by the US and other imperialist
states. Formerly the largest geographic nation-state in Africa, Sudan has
been partitioned between the North and the South and other efforts are
on-going to breakaway the Darfur region in the West of the country.
Last October 2011 at the height of the Occupy Movement across the US, the
Obama administration announced the deployment of at least 100 Special Forces
and military trainers to four states in Central and East Africa. Uganda, the
Central African Republic, South Sudan and the eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) were the named countries where the Pentagon would be operating.
These US military forces were purportedly dispatched to hunt down Joseph
Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). A campaign known as "Invisible
Children" was launched on the internet through social media.
The entire operation was merely designed to deflect attention away from the
mass demonstrations taking place throughout the US and the world against
Wall Street financiers and the impact of their policies of exploitation and
oppression. It was also aimed at creating confusion about the role of the US
military within Africa and other parts of the world.
US IMPERIALIST PLANS FOR WEST AFRICA
In West Africa, the imperialist are planning an intervention in Mali to put
down a rebellion in the north of the country by the Tuareg people. The Mali
crisis is partly related to the Pentagon-NATO destabilization of Libya with
thousands of Tuaregs being displaced as a result of the 2011 war.
Despite the fact that the US has maintained close ties with the Malian army
through AFRICOM training and joint manoeuvre projects, the armed forces
inside the country staged a coup against President Toure in March. The coup
leaders said that the military takeover was related to the failure of the
government to quell the Tuareg rebellion in the north, nevertheless, the
situation in the north worsened after the coup leading to a declaration of
independence by the Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and other
Islamist groups based in the region.
In November the United Nations Security Council announced that some 3,300
troops provided by the member-states of the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) will be sent into Mali with the aim of putting down
the Tuareg rebellion in the north of the country. However, it will be the
Pentagon and EU military forces that will provide the logistics and funding
for this operation which will inevitably benefit imperialism in its drive
for resources and profits.
CLASS AND NATIONAL STRUGGLES WILL CONTINUE
In South Africa the rising tide of the labour movement is challenging the
transnational mining industry. The outbreak of wildcat strikes is weakening
the neo-liberal policies of the ruling African National Congress and their
allies within the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the
South African Communist Party (SACP).
A broad based debate within the national liberation movement in South Africa
is taking place over the future of the struggle which after 18 years has
still not reached the objectives outlined by the Freedom Charter. The South
African Revolution must move towards socialism or it will face even greater
contradictions and internal strife.
In Zimbabwe, the ruling ZANU-PF party has consolidated the comprehensive
land redistribution program and is moving toward greater control of the
mining industry which is linked with the same sectors in neighbouring South
Africa. Throughout the Southern Africa region, the former liberation
movements are once again enhancing their dialogue and political
coordination.
The anti-war and anti-imperialist movements in the US must follow the
situation in Africa very closely. These movements in the West must be
prepared to politically defend the various movements and states that are
under threat by imperialism.
As the economic conditions of workers and the oppressed inside the US and
the imperialist countries grow more desperate every day, the aggressive
military actions against the peoples of the so-called developing states will
intensify. Consequently, the workers and oppressed of the West must form
closer alliances in order to coordinate political actions with their
counterparts in the developing and oppressed nations.
Received on Sun Dec 09 2012 - 20:51:32 EST
