April 9,2008:
The U.S. is spending $92 million to build office and support facilities
for the new AFRICOM (Africa Command), that was created six months ago. The
complex will be put up near SOUTHCOM headquarters, outside Miami, Florida.
Construction will be complete in about a year. AFRICOM headquarters are
currently located outside Stuttgart, Germany, where it will remain until a home
can be found in an African country. Many African nations are leery about
getting involved. There is fear of terrorist attacks on any AFRICOM facilities
in their territory, and some African nations, at least those run by dictators,
don't want more Americans, and their democratic ideas, upsetting the status
quo.
AFRICOM is
similar in organization to other commands (Central, for the Middle East, and
South, for Latin America, etc). AFRICOM will coordinate all American military
operations in Africa. Before, those operations were coordinated between two
commands (the one covering Europe and the one covering Latin America). The
establishment of AFRICOM means more money for counter-terror operations in
Africa, and more long range projects.
One thing
most African nations do want from AFRICOM are military and counter-terrorism
trainers. The problem with this is that, the people so trained are often then
employed as enforcers for the local dictator. Even providing training for
peacekeepers can backfire, for those peacekeeping skills can also be used to
pacify your own people.
This lack
of cooperation is troublesome, although not unexpected. Many of the requests
for basing rights come with large financial incentives (rent payments, jobs for
locals), and there are expected to be takers eventually. The United States is
the major provider of foreign aid to Africa, and has been for some time. The
mass media has been painting the U.S. as Mr Evil for the last five years,
especially in nations with large Moslem populations. But eventually, reality
trumps propaganda.