Source: ABC WMBB News 13
By JAMES W. CRAWLEY
WASHINGTON – Africa is a hot topic at the Pentagon.
The military is setting up Africa Command, a high-level headquarters akin to Tampa-based Central Command, to oversee military operations, planning, intelligence, humanitarian missions and training foreign armies in Africa.
This month, President Bush is expected to nominate a general or admiral to lead the command, which will begin initial operations in October and full operations in late 2008.
Africa Command — or, Africom — will be unlike the other military headquarters that oversee world regions.
“We needed to look at the continent fundamentally different,” said Rear Adm. Robert Moeller, executive director of the command transition team.
Civilians will take an unprecedented role, filling up to half the positions normally held by uniformed personnel. The State Department and the Agency for International Development also will contribute staffers.
With headquarters likely on the African continent, Africom will be only the second combatant command outside the United States.
For decades, Americans have largely ignored Africa, said David Shinn, former ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.
“I’m surprised (Africa Command) took this long to come to fruition,” Shinn said.
The Pentagon currently splits Africa among the Central, European and Pacific commands.
But, trouble doesn’t stop at borders inked on a map — especially, in Africa.
The Darfur crisis involves Sudan, in Central Command’s area, and Chad, in European Command’s area. Under the new scheme, Africom will be responsible for both Sudan and Chad.
The entire continent, except for Egypt, will be the new command’s responsibility. Officials decided Egypt, because of its place in Mideast politics, should remain under the Central Command.
Africa is on the front burner with its humanitarian crises, caused by nature and man. Drought, famine, disease and violence are its four seasons. But Africa increasingly is a major source of U.S. oil imports.
China has become a major player in Africa, seeing it as a source of oil and minerals and a market for Chinese goods. It has supported Sudan’s treatment of the Darfur region.
The continent has become fertile ground for terrorist organizations.
Al-Qaida’s 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the bombing of the destroyer Cole in 2000 are examples of terrorists at work in Africa. Hundreds of U.S. troops are stationed in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, for counter-terrorism missions.
The new command will give America a stronger foothold on the continent, said Brent Schaefer, an Africa specialist at the Heritage Foundation.
“Regarding U.S. policy, I can only see the upside,” he said.
Currently, Moeller and other military officials are looking for a country to host the command’s headquarters.
That’s not an easy task.
They need a place in a friendly country that can support a base for up to 1,000 American personnel. Living conditions and access to dependable transportation, communications, electricity and healthcare will be important.
Already, several nations have rebuffed American efforts, according to a Congressional Research Service report last month.
Some Africans fear that a large American presence is a first step toward the recolonization of Africa.
“This is not about bringing forces to Africa,” Moeller said. “This is to support U.S. forces working with African (governments).”
While he favors a regional command, ambassador Shinn warned against locating the headquarters in Africa.
“They are heading for a horrific mistake,” he said.
The Pentagon needs to have a location that will be usable for at least 25 years, Shinn said. Few African nations have a history of stable governments and economies. .
“There’s hardly a country I could identify that would be a good place for (Africom) headquarters,” he added.
Plus, locating a military headquarters in Africa could serve as a magnet for terrorists bent on hurting American interests, he added.
Shinn prefers placing Africom headquarters on the East Coast.
“If I was a senator or congressman with a base about to close down, I would be saying ‘Why not here?'” Shinn said. “I think it would be cheaper.”
E-mail James W. Crawley, national correspondent for Media General News Service, at [email protected].