“U.S. policy towards Africa, at least in the medium-term, looks to be 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”

 

 

While the main stream media hovers around the old topics and places in the Middle East and Korean Peninsula, the US has diverted its aim to the Dark Continent. The establishment of new Unified Combatant Command of the United States military - The United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM or AFRICOM) – is the key step taken in this pretext. Officials claim to use the casual words, “to have an area of responsibility covering Africa”, as they do more often than not.  This “Unified Combatant Command” is set to be operational by September 2008. The temporary domicile is positioned at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany until the ‘undying base’ is constructed. 

It was Donald Rumsfeld who made the master plan for the establishment of such a base somewhere back in the mid 2006. The firs report of the same came in December 2006 by the Mideast edition of Stars and Stripes. As it concerns the Dark zone, the media bestowed lest inquisitiveness. This callousness is the upshot of the fact that the region positioned economically to the rear end. And further more the uprising insecurity and civil wars in the expanse spurred by the gorilla warfare groups added as brawny affirmative elements for these notions. 

Yet the Time Magazine featured an article in their August 24, 2006 issue about this “speculation on the new command” and further more anticipated that General William E. Ward might be appointed as its first commander. And finally the official announcement came - U. S. Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller was chosen as Executive Director, head of the evolution team.

 

The Missions

 

Theresa Whelan, Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs, propounded a holy intention – “The focus of USAFRICOM's missions will be diplomatic, economic and humanitarian aid, aimed at prevention of conflict, rather than at military intervention”. But for people like Steven Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies hold the notion that the intention is well beyond these. It is generally accepted that the Dark zone has unexploited natural resources. They are still unemployed due many technical reasons. 

The recent change in Russian political diplomacy toward this region and their grants to the zone leaves the mark that USAFRICOM cannot be a monopoly trader. This may bring in some aged pictures in the minds of those who find irresistible towards history – The Colonial Era. There is just one difference in those days the powers where from the same geographical locale but now it is not.

 The Defence department released a Draft Map in February 2007 that shows the United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM) explicating its conception and distinction from parts of USEUCOM (which oversaw most countries on the continent, except those in the Horn of Africa), USCENTCOM (which had responsibility for Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and the Seychelles) and USPACOM (which had responsibility for Madagascar and the Indian Ocean).

 

Hidden Agenda

 

Pentagon’s declaration that AFRICOM’s deputy commander place is being set aside for a ‘State Department bureaucrat, rather than a military officer’ and the mission aims ‘at an interagency mix, focusing the efforts of intelligence, diplomatic, health and aid’ brings in much complexity than lucidity.

 This is clear from The Center for Contemporary Conflict of the United States Navy’s view point that “U.S. policy towards Africa, at least in the medium-term, looks to be 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”.

 The discussion for the establishment of a continental command intensified in 2003 with the rise of tensions in the oil rich Niger Delta region, owing to the Nigerian Oil Crisis, which supplies a hefty sum of oil to the United States.  

It is interesting to note that the US has made it clear that they are more ‘concerned’ (interested) towards three zones viz.

1. The Sahara/Sahel region (Military importance) : The region for which over the last six years The U.S. Congress has allotted  $500 million for the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI) to shore up the countries involved in counterterrorism against the suspected threats of Al Qaeda in commission in African countries (like Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco , Niger, Nigeria  and Senegal).

 

2. The Gulf of Guinea (Economic importance): This area is listed due to its oil resources which are projected to gain in importance. U.S. oil trade officials accentuate the aspect that the U.S. intelligence has estimated that the United States will buy 25 percent of its oil from Africa by 2015, and a January 2002 report from the African Oil Policy Initiative Group played a role in getting discussions about such a command started within the U.S. national security community, though their specific recommendation was to create a subcommand for the Gulf of Guinea and

 

3. The Horn of Africa(Military importance): In this zone Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa is located (in Djibouti).

 As a result of the 2004 global posture review, the Pentagon began implementing a number of Cooperative Security Locations (CSLs) and Forward Operating Sites (FOSs) across the African continent, through USEUCOM.

 

When glances at the past pages, he can the days where the places like India and Mesopotamia held a high status owing to rich culture and natural resources. He can also see the image of the deteriorated India in the post colonial era. If the main stream media still goes own with this callousness, this zone will have nothing but ‘the same history in future’.