To the sound of one hand clapping, the U.S. Department of Defense has given Africa its rightful place in the pantheon of continents. It is now the exclusive domain of its own U.S. military headquarters command--Africom.
I recently received an email from the African Faith and Justice Network celebrating a small victory in their fight against Africom, which reminded me that this bizarre under-the-radar Bush administration foreign policy initiative is set to go live this fall. The AFJN was pleased to report that every African nation except Liberia refused to allow Africom to set up shop on their soil. A small victory, perhaps, but an important one for symbolic reasons.
The AFJN, by the way, is a group of Catholic organizations promoting a humanitarian relationship between the U.S. and Africa. Its members include wild-eyed radicals like the Dominican Sisters of Kansas and St. Monica’s Parish in Santa Monica, California.
Africa Command, or Africom, is a new U.S. military administrative headquarters (one of six regional HQs worldwide) devoted solely to military relations with 53 African countries. It is a product of the Cheney/Rumsfeld brain trust, a group of foreign policymakers renowned for their deep expertise, long-term thinking, and delicate touch. Its announced mission is to "...to build regional security and crisis-response capacity in support of U.S. government efforts in Africa." Nobly, the Pentagon intends to focus on "war prevention rather than war-fighting." I bears an eerie resemblance to the fictional U.S. military intervention I created for my novel, Heart of Diamonds.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the man who inherited Africom from its progenitor, Donald Rumsfeld, diplomatically pointed out in recent Congressional testimony, "...we probably didn't do as good a job as we should have when we rolled out AFRICOM."
Statements such as this one from the Pentagon confirm his assessment:
"From the U.S. perspective, it makes strategic sense to help build the capability for African partners, and organizations such as the Africa Standby Force, to take the lead in establishing a secure environment. This security will, in turn, set the groundwork for increased political stability and economic growth."
From might grows right, or at least a place where commerce can flourish. The Africa Standby Force notwithstanding, it sounds a lot to me (and to many Africans) that we intend to further strengthen the armed forces of the strongmen and dictators favorable to American interests, which has been our policy since the CIA elected Mobutu President-for-life in the Congo.
Expectations from people in African nations are that we will do one of two things: exploit them as described above or, if they happen to be eternal optimists, kill their bad guys for them. Opinion weighs heavily (gee, I can’t imagine why) that U.S. military focus is part of a plan to exploit the continent’s resources for U.S. economic gain. Having seen our lumber-footed oil war in the Middle East, many Africans expect the C-17s full of troops to land at N'djili International Airport any day now.
Conversely, there are those who think we’re going to mount our white horses (or Abrams M1 tanks) and charge in to straighten out Sudan, Chad, and Somalia, stop the riots in Kenya and South Africa, and enforce democratic elections in Zimbabwe. None of that is going to happen, of course, but dictators such as Robert Mugabe now wave Africom like another bloody shirt.
When it's not offering to train and equip the armies of our friends, the ham-handed propaganda from the Pentagon tries to promote Africom as some sort of camo-clad super humanitarian agency coordinating relief efforts and promoting democracy. Even the Pentagon admits this is a new role for the U.S. military. There are others (like me) who wonder what the State Department is supposed to do while the Defense Department is running U.S. foreign affairs.
Then there is the question of priorities. At the risk of irresponsibly rapid-firing a stream of rhetorical questions, let me pose a few: Why doesn’t the U.S. make economic investments in infrastructure such as power plants that would enable African industries to operate more efficiently? Or eliminate pork-barrel farm subsidies that wreck African farmers’ ability to compete in world markets? Or commit to serious aid to education that would create a new generation of African leaders?
Is there somebody I should call about this at the Pentagon?