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

U.S. Steps Up Militarization of Africa Through “Drug Wars"
25 Jul 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

The United States wants to drag Africa into its drug wars – on top of Washington’s War on Terror. Since drugs always follow American “anti-narcotics” activity in the world, the inevitable result will be an explosion of drug networks in targeted African countries. “Liberia and Ghana will soon emerge as hubs of the African drug trade – just as happened in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America.”

 

U.S. Steps Up Militarization of Africa Through “Drug Wars”

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“Washington has its eyes on Liberia and Ghana.”

When a high U.S. government official says Africa is “the new frontier,” it’s time for everyone that cares about the continent to watch out, because something really dangerous is afoot. A top guy in the D.E.A. recently described Africa as the “new frontier” where Washington hopes to embed commando-style teams of specially vetted police for an American-run war on drugs, similar to U.S. operations in El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. And we all know how those U.S. so-called anti-drug operations turned out. We should add to the list Colombia and Afghanistan, the world capitals of cocaine and heroin, respectively.

According to mythology, everything King Midas touched turned to gold. It appears the United States has the Narcotics Touch; everything the Americans touch turns to dope. American allies in the developing world quickly become narco-states.

The pattern has not changed in 60 years, since the Italian and French mafias were rewarded with international drug franchises in return for their assistance against socialists and communists. Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle became the center of the global heroin trade during the Vietnam War – a project of the CIA. When the U.S. shifted its focus to suppressing leftist movements in Latin America, cocaine became the region’s biggest export. The United States has never waged war against drugs – quite the opposite. Washington rewards its political friends with drug franchises and monopolies, in return for service to American corporate interests. That’s why most of America’s friends in the developing world are criminal regimes.

“Washington hopes to embed commando-style teams of specially vetted police for an American-run war on drugs.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is most proud of its work in Honduras, where a U.S.-backed coup overthrew a mildly leftist government during President Obama’s first year in office. The Americans now roam the country like they own it, in joint operations with the same soldiers and national police that continue to kill and brutalize peasant, student and worker organizations. The joint drug operations, which have succeeded in killing at least four innocent Mosquito Indians, including two pregnant women, will undoubtedly result in a march larger drug trade under the tight control of the military, police and wealthy landowners allied with the Americans. That’s how the American Narco Touch works. The endless phony War on Drugs is a tool of U.S. policy, designed to subvert foreign governments and societies. The drug trade never gets smaller.

Now it’s Africa’s turn. Washington has its eyes on Liberia and Ghana, where it plans to train elite police units after first “vetting” their personnel – a euphemism for making sure that the commandos are willing to act as de facto U.S. operatives. You can be sure that Liberia and Ghana will soon emerge as hubs of the African drug trade – just as happened in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America. With Washington’s “vetted” operatives in charge of the African drug networks, the U.S. will vastly increase its ability to buy influence among the greedy classes all across the continent, both in and out of uniform. Just as in Colombia and Honduras and Panama and Guatemala, the Drug Wars become indistinguishable from the War on Terror, which used to be called the War on Communism. It's really a war against the poor.

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/20120725_gf_AfricaDrugs.mp3

More Stories


  •  G7 is a Neocolonial Cabal
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    G7 is a Neocolonial Cabal
    21 Jun 2021
    The recently concluded summit meeting of so-called G7 nations revealed them once again to be nothing “but a cabal and gangsters” bent on “maintaining neocolonial rule” of the planet, said R
  •  Make Black Lives Matter Fund-Raising Socially Accountable
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Make Black Lives Matter Fund-Raising Socially Accountable
    21 Jun 2021
    “Finance capital doesn’t fund liberation movements,” said Dr Joy James, the Williams College Humanities professor who moderated a recent Accountability in Social Justice Movements
  • Freedom Ride: How Not to Celebrate Juneteenth
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Ride: How Not to Celebrate Juneteenth
    16 Jun 2021
    Juneteenth has become the latest iteration of liberal capture of Black politics, opportunistic virtue signaling, and the intentional misrepresentation of America’s history.
  • Independent Media is Political, Too: A Defense of “State” or Publicly-Funded Media
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Independent Media is Political, Too: A Defense of “State” or Publicly-Funded Media
    16 Jun 2021
    It is imperative for independent journalism to serve as the media arm of a movement that opposes the privatization of information and works toward the development of a public media apparatus.
  • REPORT: Murdering Women in Nigeria, Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, May 1930
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    REPORT: Murdering Women in Nigeria, Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, May 1930
    16 Jun 2021
    British colonial officials turned their guns on women in two Nigerian towns in the 1920s, to put down protests against “head” taxes and levies on market stalls, killing scores. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us