From Socialist Voice, January 2010

“Promoting a stable and secure African environment in support of US foreign policy”

Look at a map of the world and you will see that the United States doesn’t account for a very large part of it. Its area is 6 per cent of the land area of the Earth; its population makes up 4½ per cent of that of the planet. Yet the people of that country largely believe that it is their right and even their “destiny” (a large proportion believe it is their “God-given destiny”) to provide the single model of government for the whole world—and to impose that model by force if necessary.
     So successful has that country been in dominating popular culture and all the means of communication that not only its own people but a large proportion of the people of the world believe the United States to be the model state and even the model democracy, despite its invasion and occupation of numerous sovereign countries during the twentieth century, its hundreds of military bases on every continent, its subversion and overthrow of elected governments, and its organising and propping up of fascist dictatorships.

Introducing Africa Command

Most armies adopt territorial divisions of their countries for administrative purposes. The Irish army until recently had an Eastern Command, Western Command, and Southern Command, corresponding approximately to Leinster, Connacht, and Munster, respectively.
     The United States army also has a Southern Command. It does not, however, comprise Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, as you might expect, but Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, and the whole of Central America and the Caribbean (including Cuba).
     It also has a European Command, a Pacific Command, a Central Command (covering the whole of the Middle East and Central Asia), and now an Africa Command. The openness with which these divisions are named and discussed reveals the attitude of the United States to the rest of the world and its belief that the people of the world accept that this is the natural order of things.
     According to its own very frank “mission statement,” Africa Command, “in concert with other U.S. government agencies and international partners, conducts sustained security engagement through military-to-military programs, military-sponsored activities, and other military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. foreign policy.”
     What about the African countries themselves? Were they consulted about their continent being made a territorial division of the US army? No—not publicly, anyway. And none of the “international partners” in Africa, apart from Liberia, would allow the headquarters of this command on their territory. It is now based at Stuttgart.
     The proposal to set up a separate African command originated with the shadowy “African Oil Policy Initiative Group,” which predicted that by 2015 a quarter of America’s oil requirements will be obtained from Africa. Once again oil—and not “good governance”—is the impetus.
     As far as can be ascertained, no other armed forces have administrative divisions that include other sovereign states. The implications could hardly be clearer.
[SOB]

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