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
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
“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
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 .
Acts of police brutality and other forms of misconduct are common throughout the country. The East Bay Area of California is exceptional only in that some officers have been indicted for a…
Mosaic: An Interview with August K. Clayton
Recently articles have appeared on the front page of the New York Times that try to smear Code Pink, The People’s Forum and TriContinental as Chinese agents. The Times article was followed by a…
Michael Oher’s story of exploitation is even worse than the white savior narrative presented by Hollywood.
Authors of a new report worry that Washington won’t heed their warnings but double down in an era of Great Power Competition.
