Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Nature of the US Military Presencein Africa

No Cornelius. I have got my own president here in Nigeria. But Obama's job is the United States and the interest of the United States. If he does good for other countries, it is out of enlightened self-interest: because it is also to the benefit of the United States and its people, even if it involves some sacrifice. So I don't blame him for not doing what I, as a Nigerian want. That is the job f my own president.

Ayo
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama

On 27 Jul 2012, at 19:57, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:

> " I was ever of opinion, that the honest man who married and brought
> up a large family, did more service than he who continued single, and
> only talked of population." ( Oliver Goldsmith)
>
> "I have never been under any delusion that Obama is anything other
> than the President of the United States of America." (Ayo Obe)
>
> No doubt about it, change has come and Brother Obama is the President
> of the United States of America!
>
> You want your own special president, a more jungle and less humble
> president, a president of the United States of Africa, you can go
> ahead and arrange a presidential election so that the States ( of
> Africa) arrive at a general consensus as to who should be the
> Commander-in-Chief of the United States of Africa's military and
> natural resources for the next x number of years.
>
> It's a popular perception
>
> The human resources are being drained, constantly, to where they can
> at least eke out a livelihood, scavenge for some daily honey..and make
> valuable contributions with their money, or as scholars make it all
> less funny....
>
> http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/corneliushamelberg/
>
>
>
>
> On Jul 27, 5:23 pm, Ayo Obe <ayo.m.o....@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I will leave Prof. Bangura to answer as he is more than capable of doing, despite his unwavering opposition to Obama. But it is important for us to separate the fact that we may like Obama, that he is a Democrat, that he is half African, from the reality on the ground here in Africa. That was why I appreciated it when Prof Bangura made reference to the success of George W Bush's PEPFAR even though one may not like Bush, that he is a Republican, not at all African and invaded Iraq as well as Afghanistan amongst other things. The bad things that Bush did were outside Africa, and apart from a general world view (because we must also recognise that the effect of those things is not confined to the theatre of battle, but extends beyond, even to Africa) one may want to see what positive things Obama has actually done on the continent, as well as looking at whatever negative things he may have done in Africa. Besides the 'feel good factor' of course.
>>
>> For myself, I have never been under any delusion that Obama is anything other than the President of the United States of America. And that yet, I will be devastated if he doesn't win re-election in November. Go figure. But then, I don't live in the US.
>>
>> Ayo
>> I invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama
>>
>> On 27 Jul 2012, at 11:05, "Kolawole Adegbola"<okeba...@peoplepc.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> What do you base this outrageous opinion / conclusion on?
>>
>>> Sent from my Motorola ATRIX™ 4G on AT&T
>>
>>> -----Original message-----
>>> From: Abdul Bangura <th...@earthlink.net>
>>> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com, dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, ya <yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com>
>>> Sent: Fri, Jul 27, 2012 02:49:54 GMT+00:00
>>> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Nature of the US Military Presencein Africa
>>
>>> Obama is the most dangerous POTUS that Afrika has ever faced!
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Toyin Falola
>>> To: dialogue;ya
>>> Sent: 7/26/2012 4:48:45 PM
>>> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Nature of the US Military Presencein Africa
>>
>>> The Nature of the US Military Presence in Africa
>>
>>> Thursday, 26 July 2012 13:52 By Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse, TomDispatch | News Analysis
>>
>>> font size decrease font size increase font size
>>> On July 12th, TomDispatch posted the latest piece in Nick Turse's "changing face of empire" series: "Obama's Scramble for Africa." It laid out in some detail the way in which the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has, in recent years, spread its influence across that continent, establishing bases and outposts, sending in special operations forces and drones, funding proxy forces on the continent, and so on. As last week ended, TomDispatch received a "letter to the editor" from Colonel Tom Davis, director of the U.S. Africa Command Office of Public Affairs, disputing in some detail a number of Turse's points. (Colonel Davis also sent a copy of the letter to the Nation Institute, which supports this website.)
>>
>>> As readers know, it's quite possible to write this editor. I read everything that arrives at TomDispatch with appreciation and answer when I can. There is, however, no "comments" section, nor a place for letters to the editor at TD. In this case, however, I found the obvious time and effort AFRICOM took to respond to the Turse piece of interest and so, today, we're posting Colonel Davis's full letter, and a response from Turse. After all, whatever highlights the changing U.S. military position in Africa, about which Americans know remarkably little, seems well worth the time and space.
>>
>>> Two things remain to be said: first, beneath the detailed critique and response that follows lies an obvious difference of opinion that seems worth highlighting. Like a number of other TomDispatch writers, I believe that the U.S. military should not be responsible for Planet Earth; that it is not in our interest for the Pentagon to be dividing the globe, like a giant pie, into six "slices" covering almost every inch of the planet: U.S. European Command, or EUCOM (for Europe and Russia), the U.S. Pacific Command, or PACOM (Asia), CENTCOM (the Greater Middle East and a touch of North Africa), NORTHCOM (North America), SOUTHCOM (South America and most of the Caribbean), and AFRICOM (almost all of Africa). Nor should the U.S. military be garrisoning the planet in the historically unprecedented way it does. This imperial role of ours has little or nothing to do with "defense" and creates many possibilities for future blowback. Instead, it seems far more sensible to begin to shut down or cut back radically on our vast array of global bases and outposts (rather than, as in Africa, expanding them), and downsize our global mission in a major way. AFRICOM would obviously disagree, as would the Pentagon and the Obama administration, and the results of that basic disagreement about the role of the U.S. military in the world can be seen in what follows.
>>
>>> Second, one of Colonel Davis's criticisms below is of a passage in my introduction to Turse's piece. "[O]nly the other day," I wrote, "it was revealed that three U.S. Army commandos in a Toyota Land Cruiser had skidded off a bridge in Mali in April. They died, all three, along with three women identified as 'Moroccan prostitutes.'" The Colonel questions the accuracy of that word "revealed," since his command had issued a brief press release on April 20th stating: "Three U.S. military members and three civilians died in a vehicle accident in Bamako, Mali today."
>>
>>> In the Washington Post piece I linked to, however, reporter Craig Whitlock identified the three "military members" as "U.S. Army Commandos" and those three "civilians" as "Moroccan prostitutes" and raised the following questions: "What the men were doing in the impoverished country of Mali, and why they were still there a month after the United States suspended military relations with its government, is at the crux of a mystery that officials have not fully explained even 10 weeks later." It seems to me that, if you compare the press release to the later article, "revealed" is not too strong a word. With that, let me turn the proceedings over to Colonel Davis and Nick Turse. Tom
>>
>>> The Nature of the US Military Presence in Africa: An Exchange between Colonel Tom Davis and Nick Turse
>>
>>> FROM: Colonel Tom Davis
>>
>>> Director, U.S. Africa Command Office of Public Affairs
>>
>>> Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany
>>
>>> TO: Mr. Tom Engelhardt, Editor
>>
>>> Dear Mr. Engelhardt,
>>
>>> We read the recent article "Secret Wars, Secret Bases, and the Pentagon's 'New Spice Route' in Africa" with great interest. It is clear the author, Nick Turse, conducted a great deal of research, including reaching out to us, and we welcomed the opportunity to highlight U.S. Africa Command's mission and activities. However, there were several inaccuracies and misrepresentations that we would like to address. My hope is that you, through your publication, will correct the record. As a thought provoking, responsible, and professional journalist, I know that you would want to ensure all reporting was based on facts, not innuendos or misperceptions.
>>
>>> Below are the items U.S. Africa Command would like to address:
>>
>>> "They call it the New Spice Route": This was a term used informally by a few of our logistics specialists to describe the intra-theater transportation system, primarily land shipments from Djibouti, which provides logistical support for U.S. military activities in Africa. The network is officially called the AFRICOM Surface Distribution Network. However, to call it a "superpower's superhighway" is very misleading. The U.S. military cargo transported along these different transportation nodes represents only a mere fraction -- i.e., a handful of trucks per week intermixed among the thousands of others -- of the total amount of fuel, food, and equipment transported along these routes each day.
>>
>>> "Fast-growing U.S. military presence in Africa": While the size of the U.S. military footprint in Africa has increased since the creation of U.S. Africa Command in October 2008, to call it "fast-growing" is an exaggeration. At the end of October 2008, there were about 2,600 U.S. military personnel and Department of Defense civilians on the African continent or on ships within the command's area of responsibility. The number today is about 5,000, more than half of which represents the service members who serve tours at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, with the remainder serving on a temporary basis ranging from a few days to a few weeks. Much of this change is attributable to an increase in the number of exercises and military-to-military engagement programs in order to better enable African nations and regional organizations to strengthen their defense capabilities. On a much smaller scale, it also reflects a modest increase in the staff sizes of DOD offices resident in U.S. embassies, which average just a small number of staff members. But even 5,000 personnel -- about the military population of a small Air Force Base in the U.S. -- spread across an area that covers 54 countries and major portions of two oceans can hardly be called a "scramble for Africa."
>>
>>> In our view, this is very positive, and testament to our desire to be a security partner of choice in Africa. It reflects an increase in military assistance engagement activities -- all of which are requested and approved by the host nation. While we work to advance the security interests of the U.S., we are together addressing what are clearly shared security interests.
>>
>>> "The U.S. maintains a surprising number of bases in Africa": This is incorrect. In the lexicon of the U.S. military, the word "base" implies a certain size, level of
>>
>> ...
>>
>> read more »
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