Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Somalis Under Relentless Drone Attack as U.S. Tightens Military Grip on Continent
19 Oct 2011
🖨️ Print Article

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

Africa, under President Obama, is an expanding theater of war for the United States. There are few points on the African map where the U.S. military does not operate, independently, through proxies, or by agreement with local governments and militaries. AFRICOM has penetrated the armed forces of the continent to a degree no single European power could have ever aspired. Indeed, “the U.S. has so thoroughly infiltrated African armies, many, if not most, would be of no use for national defense against the Americans.”

 

Somalis Under Relentless Drone Attack as U.S. Tightens Military Grip on Continent

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The overlapping entanglements have allowed the U.S. military to achieve deep penetration of the armed forces of most African nations.”

Scores of Somali civilians have been killed in U.S. drone attacks in the southern region of the country, as Washington tightens its military grip on much of the continent. The current offensive involves thousands of Kenyan troops that are threatening the major Somali city of Kismayo. The American drones are supporting the Kenyan invasion. The drones’ origins are officially secret, but it is known that the U.S. operates drone bases in Ethiopia and Djibouti, which is home to a huge American base.

For all practical purposes, the U.S. has made proxies of Ethiopia and the five member states of the East African Community: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. The Ugandans and Burundians safeguard the airport that is the lifeline for Somalia’s puppet regime in Mogadishu, where the CIA operates a major facility. In September, the militaries of the East African Community held joint exercises with AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command.

Such exercises with American forces have become commonplace. The U.S. Defense Department is busily training the militaries of Mali, Chad, Niger, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Gabon, Zambia, Uganda, Senegal, Mozambique, Ghana, Malawi, and Mauretania. ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, is considering asking the U.S. navy to help it out with its pirate problem. Most of the militaries of the African Union already communicate with American command-and-control equipment, requiring U.S. advisors. The overlapping entanglements have allowed the U.S. military to achieve deep penetration of the armed forces of most African nations.

“Most of the militaries of the African Union already communicate with American command-and-control equipment.”

In such a web of dependency, few standing African armies are capable of defending themselves – if the aggressor is the United States. But in most cases, the U.S. would likely get its way without a fight, since the officer class of so many African militaries have direct ties with their American counterparts. The U.S. has so thoroughly infiltrated African armies, many, if not most, would be of no use for national defense against the Americans.

The Americans are almost everywhere, but the French never left Africa. Although France and the U.S. were longtime rivals in Africa, waging proxy wars against each other through their African flunkies, their joint actions against Haiti and Libya, and in bringing down the government in the Ivory Coast, signal that the French and Americans are full partners in neocolonialism.

Now President Obama has officially sent 100 U.S. Special Forces troops to Uganda and neighboring countries, ostensibly to track down a rebel force. They will also operate in the new nation of South Sudan.

Meanwhile, the NATO attack on Libya threatens to set the whole northern tier of Africa ablaze, a pretext for further U.S. and French operations. American penetration of Africa has reached the point that any nation – such as Eritrea – that does not have a military relationship with the United States is marked for regime change. Instead of the pan-Africanist dream of a United States of Africa, we are seeing an Africa under the military thumb of the United States. For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20111019_gf_USinAfrica.mp3

More Stories


  • In the People’s War against COVID-19, Socialism Offers Victory while Capitalism Spells Defeat
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    In the People’s War against COVID-19, Socialism Offers Victory while Capitalism Spells Defeat
    06 May 2020
    Socialist societies are capable of doing much more to contain diseases like Covid-19, such as rapid testing, neighborhood food deliveries, and the use of AI technology to trace contacts and symptom
  • United States of Distraction: A Book Review
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    United States of Distraction: A Book Review
    06 May 2020
    The authors recount and document the descent into “post-truth” partisan journalism from the alt-right to the right, liberal, and even independent left media, between 2016 and now.
  • Mayday 2020
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Mayday 2020
    06 May 2020
    (For Ferguson, Baltimore, Million Workers March,  Arab Spring, Standing Rock, Occupy, Jackson Rising,  Fight for Fifteen, Extinction Rebellion, #Me Too…)
  • Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability
    Shaun Ossei-Owusu
    Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability
    06 May 2020
    When the dust settles, as in all U.S. disasters, there will be a tale to tell of who mattered and who was sacrificed.
  • The Makings of A Capitalist Dystopia
    Erica Caines
    The Makings of A Capitalist Dystopia
    06 May 2020
    Colonized people, with a horrific historical connection to both science and medicine in this country, must examine science in service of the state.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us