In 2004 the US military began to expand into Africa. In 2007 they created Africa Command (Africom). Since then they’ve accelerated and expanded operations. Africa has great natural resources, but why more interest now?
Here is one possible explanation: the great game. A rival great power expands its reach and things of no interest to us suddenly become worth contesting. China has become a major importer from many African nations, and the US replies in the only way it knows how.Fabius Maximus
A reason for the US military expansion into Africa
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Another military blogger, former USMC officer Carlton Meyer, noted several years ago that some of these unified commands , including the recently activated África Command,are mainly kept activated to provide more billets for General officers. I can only wonder what the spin will be If sequestration leads to the Pentagon eliminating commands and closing more overseas bases. Will the generals and military contractors be able to keep telling the scary stories about our military being hollowed out.
John Quincy Adams's
Warning Against the Search for "Monsters to Destroy," 1821
And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind? Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....
Ryan - al Qaeda was created by the US to harass the Soviets in Afghanistan with stinger missiles in the 1980s when they were better known as the Mujahideen. Now it has come back to haunt us as a Frankenstein monster of our own making. al Qaeda is a consequence of blowback of US foreign policy and military interventionism around the world. When Osama Bin Laden declared war on the US in 1998 he was explicit about denouncing US military presence in what Muslims consider their holy land in Saudi Arabia.
Ed,
Seems to me all they have to do is to stop selling us their oil and that should get rid of us...
then we could be finally left to move beyond petro and into the next generation of transportation energy...
rsp,
Matt - You and I both know that the oil producing countries in the Middle East do not have the option to not sell us their oil. Directly or indirectly they are going to sell it to us, but this is becoming more and more of a moot issue given that estimates project that the US will become a net exporter of oil and gas by about 2020 as I recall.
As far as the next generation of energy goes I favor thorium fission as a stepping stone to thermonuclear fusion which would be the ultimate game changer that would radically redefine humanity's relationship to nature. I believe fusion is why the Chinese are planning to go to the moon, in order to get Helium 3 which is extremely rare on earth but abundant on the surface of the moon and also happens to be the ideal fuel for fusion reactions. And, if wind and solar power prove to be efficient enough to add to the mix in a meaningful way, I'm all for that too.
" I believe fusion is why the Chinese are planning to go to the moon, in order to get Helium 3 which is extremely rare on earth but abundant on the surface of the moon and also happens to be the ideal fuel for fusion reactions. "
Wow!
rsp
"Wow!"
Matt - Just my hunch.
You and I both know that the oil producing countries in the Middle East do not have the option to not sell us their oil.
Right, the chose is that you can sell us your oil and buy our bonds and military hardware, or we'll put someone in power there who will.
"Right, the chose is that you can sell us your oil and buy our bonds and military hardware, or we'll put someone in power there who will."
How true!
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