U.S. expands military command in Africa

The Pentagon is expanding its military operations in Africa. It says its aim is to insure “peace and security” and “promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy and economic growth in Africa.”

After the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, who can believe them?

On Feb. 6 Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the Bush administration was in the process of creating a Unified Combatant Command for Africa, to be known as AFRICOM. In July President George W. Bush nominated Gen. William E. Ward to be its commander.

AFRICOM is slated to encompass the entire continent of Africa, except for Egypt, which is under the U.S. Central Command.

It was former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who drew up the initial plan for AFRICOM and presented it to Bush.

The Defense Department divides its worldwide military operations into regional commands. Currently, the U.S. Central Command comprises the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia. The U.S. European Command coordinates much of sub-Saharan Africa as well as Europe. The U.S. Northern Command coordinates North America. The U.S. Southern Command coordinates South America, Central America and the Caribbean, while the U.S. Pacific Command is made up of East Asia and South Asia, including the Indian Ocean islands off the coast of southeast Africa.

Bush’s goal is to have AFRICOM functional by Sept. 30, 2008. The plan includes establishing U.S. military bases in many more African nations with an AFRICOM headquarters in an as yet undecided location in Africa.

After 9/11 the Pentagon had set up the Pan-Sahel Initiative. It now operates the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative, which enables U.S. military personnel to roam freely around many of the oil-rich African nations under the guise of “fighting terrorism.”

What’s the real motivation for this sudden focus on Africa? Like a rapacious, bloodthirsty hunter, U.S. imperialism is salivating with desire over what it sees there: oceans of oil, as well as abundant other natural resources. But to secure the operations of U.S. corporations in extracting billions of dollars worth of oil as smoothly as possible and establishing control over more markets, the Pentagon, oil executives and Bush have come up with AFRICOM.

In 2002 the African Oil Political Initiative Group, a lobbying group made up of members of the oil industry and the government, presented a white paper to Bush and Congress urging greater extraction of oil from Africa, stating that the Gulf of Guinea is “an area of vital interest to the U.S.” (Christian Science Monitor, May 23, 2002)

In 2004 a former member of Bill Clinton’s National Security Council, Richard Wilcox, motivated the establishment of an African command in an op-ed piece: “The Navy has conducted major exercises off West Africa, an area that, according to a recent study by the National Intelligence Council, may surpass the Persian Gulf as a source of oil for the U.S. in a decade.” (New York Times, Oct. 14, 2004)

By 2006 the Pentagon announced it would expand its Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, where 1,500 U.S. troops are stationed in Djibouti at Camp Lemonier, from 88 acres to 600 acres. This region is a gateway to the oil-rich Middle East, where the U.S. is conducting a colonial occupation of Iraq and where the Palestinian people continue to resist against Israel.

The military, like the Bush administration, makes it sound as though ordinary U.S. citizens need this oil, and that without the Pentagon’s presence other countries, like China, will get it: “The Center for Contemporary Conflict of the United States Navy states that U.S. policy towards Africa is largely defined by international terrorism, the increasing importance of African oil to American energy needs, and the dramatic expansion and improvement of Sino-African relations since the turn of the century.” (Strategic Insights, January 2007)

However, while all countries need and buy oil today, only a few send their troops to control the sources. The difference is that these imperialist countries—especially the U.S., Britain and France—are dominated by huge corporations that make fabulous profits off of oil, from the exploration and drilling to the refining and marketing. When they send in the troops, the billionaires get even richer while the taxpayers get stuck with the military bills. And our gas prices keep going up.

The Pentagon has been trying to sell AFRICOM to skeptical African leaders as a way to fight terrorism and create “stability on the continent.” Stability for whom? The African people? Those who work in the oil fields?

Wilcox wrote his piece after a two-day walkout of oil workers in Nigeria that was followed by a four-day general strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress. The workers were protesting massive poverty in this oil-rich country and an extreme rise in domestic fuel prices.

Labor resistance, combined with that of groups like the Niger Delta People’s Voluntary Force and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, resulted in the loss of millions of barrels of crude oil during the months of October and November 2004. ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and Shell have invested billions of dollars in the Gulf of Guinea area and expect to reap even more in profits.

Nigeria is among the top five suppliers of oil to the U.S. Algeria, Angola and Gabon are among the top 15. Crude oil production in sub-Saharan Africa surpassed 4 million barrels a day in 2000—more than Iran, Venezuela or Mexico. (Christian Science Monitor, May 23, 2002)

The National Intelligence Council says oil exports from the Gulf of Guinea will reach 25 percent of total U.S. imports by 2015. Congress has budgeted $500 million over six years to the European Command, which oversees this area.

While the U.S. expresses concern that China is attempting to gain control over Africa’s natural resources, the recent economic agreements China has made with African states are very welcome there. An article in the February 2007 edition of National Geographic says that “China’s oil purchases come with a commitment to finance large infrastructure programs,” such as building railroad lines and roads.

By contrast, instead of building up Nigeria, U.S. oil companies have devastated it both economically and environmentally. The oil industry does not create jobs for local people, and pollution has ruined their subsistence farming and fishing. This country of 130 million people was once self-sufficient in food but now imports most of it. While the oil companies reap billions from what they take from under the feet of the people, Nigeria is forced to import the bulk of its fuel.

Per capita income in Nigeria is $1,400. In the oil capital of Port Harcourt, there is no publicly supplied electricity, clean water, schools or medicine. Oil spills, acid rain, the disappearance of thousands of acres of mangrove forests and wetlands are what U.S. imperialism and the oil companies leave behind.

AFRICOM will pave the way for more such destruction.