AFRICOM and the perception mess

[Dayuhan]

Once again, someone doesn't get strategic communication - at the highest levels in the US Government. It's not limited only to the bungling of the Africom announcement.

They don't get it at all. It's not limited to the AFRICOM announcement and it's not limited to Africa... here in Asia it's been a running theme for decades in my experience and much longer from the accounts of others. I've given up hoping for improvement.

You guys feel that once you've processed a concept within your system and you are okay with it, then all will be well. Because the innate goodness of America is apparent to all and that the whole World sees the Shining City on a Hill and America is an exceptional nation and Americans are exceptional people.

Part of the problem is that those themes are almost mandatory in domestic political communication, but in today's world what's said for domestic consumption often goes out to a much wider audience... and often spills into non-domestic communication as well.

My major worry is not what Africom is or is not, but that the creators of Africom either don't get Africa or don't take Africa seriously enough. Neither is good. After Iraq and Afghanistan, you cannot afford to make that kind of blunder.

They don't get it, and probably never will. The blunders go back way farther than Iraq and Afghanistan, and they probably will continue. Fortunately that's not the end of the world. They never got Asia or Latin America and proceeded with epic blunders in both, but despite that there's been real progress in both domestic conditions and relations with the US.