Now hold on just a second longer
Quote:
Originally Posted by
african007
And Africa means it.
NO US base anywhere near anywhere. Here's a site that elaborates the determination and mobilization against it...
Africa Against Africom DOT org
I love SWJED's avator, can I borrow it?
The short answer to that question is NO !
Botswana: Botswana Discusses Africom
Maybe not such a bleak outlook afterall.
Nigeria: Gulf of Guinea - Govt Soft-Pedals On U.S. Military :eek:
Seems the oil-rich hardliner is having problems financing his cheap talk. I wouldn't wait for 'Africa Against AFRICOM' to post that trivial tidbit :wry:
So African007, it's one down and three to go :D
Fighting Exposes Children to Forced Recruitment, Exploitation
From All Africa via The UN News Service (New York), 19 September 2007
Quote:
The situation of children in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has gone from bad to worse, with 60,000 people newly driven from their homes by fighting in North Kivu province, exposing youngsters to the dangers of forced recruitment and sexual exploitation, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The agency has received a report of 54 cases of children recruited in northeast Kivu "and to the west we've heard that there's forced recruitment of all males over the age of 15," Mr. Harneis said. "In the last couple of weeks, we believe that hundreds of children have been recruited into militias, which brings the total number of cases to well over 1,000."
DoD planning 5 regional teams under AFRICOM
Navy Times
DoD planning 5 regional teams under AFRICOM
Quote:
By John T. Bennett - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 20, 2007 5:40:35 EDT
Much of the work for U.S. Africa Command, the U.S. military’s newest geographic command, likely will be done by five teams, each deployed to and designed for a specific region of the continent.
The plans for these “regional integration teams” are still being laid, but Pentagon officials want a “split-based, tailored presence” there, not a one-size-fits-all approach that might produce dividends in one region but chaos in another, according to Defense Department documents prepared in mid-September.
One team will go to the northern, eastern, southern, central and western portions of the continent, mirroring the African Union’s five regional economic communities, the briefing documents say.
The idea is to “establish regional presence on the African continent which would facilitate appropriate interaction with existing Africa political-military organizations,” one of the Sept. 14 briefings says.
The regional teams will link to African Union organizations, “Africa stand-by force brigade headquarters [and] U.S. AID support hubs,” according to the slides.
More at the above link
New AFRICOM Staff to be Mainly Situated Outside Africa
New AFRICOM Staff to be Mainly Situated Outside Africa - Stars and Stripes by Charlie Coon.
Quote:
The U.S. military’s newest command, Africa Command, could have only a small minority of its people actually working on the continent.
Theresa Whelan, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for African affairs, told a Washington- based think tank last week that 80 percent of the command’s staff would live outside of Africa.
Whelan did not say where the majority of staff would be located, but the command, called AFRICOM, is currently forming up in Stuttgart, Germany. The Defense Department has previously called Stuttgart a temporary headquarters for AFRICOM.
The command is scheduled to begin initial operations on Monday. It would coordinate U.S. military activities on the continent such as military-to-military training and support of humanitarian missions...
Trans-sahara Counterterrorism Initiative: Balance Of Power?
USAWC STRATEGY RESEARCH PROJECT
TRANS-SAHARA COUNTERTERRORISM INITIATIVE:BALANCE OF POWER?
by
Lieutenant Colonel Mary Jo Choate
United States Marine Corps
Quote:
"The military components of the TSCTI are solid, but there needs to be more investment in the other elements of national power, especially the Economic element. The U.S. needs to dig deep into its pockets, and convince the global community to do likewise, to support long-term programs to reduce poverty and social alienation. Although the TSCTI is touted as an interagency program, the majority of its “face” is military. The interagency partnerships and dovetailing programs are insufficiently tied to TSCTI, and the Information element of national power – both the Information Operations and Public Diplomacy, depending on whether the target audience is the bad guys or the good guys (the people of Africa; the taxpayers and elected officials at home in the U.S.) – needs to be leveraged more often and more effectively. This is how we win hearts, minds and future resources. A program without funding is a fantasy."
The Manipulation of Maternal Instincts
help with filling the bellies, their minds will follow - start providing solar cooking devices to the women to free them up from gathering wood and dry dung all the time so they can spend more time at other tasks, like cooperative income generating projects - a partial solution, nothing more - as a bush mother once told me, " If didn't have to gather so much wood, I could have a bigger garden".
Personally, I'd stamp some propoganda on the side of the box that held the cooker: the cartouche of the all-seeing eye, below that on one side a little American flag with a woman bleow it shaking the hand of an African woman whose national flag is above her head. Food for thought, eh?
Winning Stomachs and guts?
I think you're on to something here. Forget about "winning hearts and minds", that's tired. It's all about winning stomachs and guts!
U.S. Africa Command Reaches Initial Operating Capability
Quote:
U.S. Africa Command
Stuttgart, Germany
Press Release 08-001
October 1, 2007
Washington, DC – U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, officially stood up today when the organization reached its "initial operating capability" (IOC) to start functioning as the Pentagon’s newest regionally-focused headquarters.
General William E. "Kip" Ward was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 28 as AFRICOM's first commander.
AFRICOM’s IOC marks a realignment of the U.S. Defense Department’s regional command structure, creating one headquarters staff that is responsible to the Secretary of Defense for U.S. military relations with 53 countries on the African continent.
www.africom.mil