but the name, applied to a US Military Command is fairly benign. As are the names Central, Northern and Southern. European is locale specifc but it's been around so long no one notices.

OTOH, naming a new Command for a specific and troubled continent at a time whee we're in one of our periodic 'throwing our weight around' modes is probably not very smart.

I have no question that the long standing division of the continent among three Commands should be rectified for many reasons but an innocuous name would soothe the concerns of many. Regardless, we've done it and named it.

That did not mean we then had to go shopping for an office building and get embarrassed by having our credit card rejected -- totally predictably -- in several countries. Hopefully, we will not be dumb enough to bully our way in somewhere.

If Southern Command can operate from Miami, so could Africom...