underdog Posted July 31, 2003 US military wants to increase its presence in Africa By Eric Schmitt in Washington July 7 2003 The United States military is seeking to expand its presence in Africa through new basing agreements and training exercises aimed at combating a growing terrorist threat. Even as military planners prepare options for US troops to join an international peacekeeping force to oversee a ceasefire in Liberia, the Pentagon wants to enhance military ties with allies such as Morocco and Tunisia. It is also seeking to gain long-term access to bases in countries such as Mali and Algeria, which US forces could use for periodic training or to strike terrorists. And it aims to build on aircraft refuelling agreements in Senegal and Uganda, two countries that President George Bush is to visit on the five-nation swing through Africa that he begins tomorrow. There were no plans to build permanent US bases in Africa, Pentagon officials said. Instead, the US European Command, which oversees military operations in most of Africa, wants troops now in Europe to rotate more often into bare-bones camps or airfields in Africa. Marines may spend more time sailing off West Africa. This northern autumn US trainers will work with soldiers from four North African countries on patrolling and gathering intelligence. Some plans are still on the drawing board and will need the approval of the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, or his aides. But other military initiatives in Africa are already under way or will soon begin. Late last year, for example, more than 1800 US soldiers were placed in Djibouti to conduct counter-terrorism operations in the Horn of Africa. Commanders say new threats require the Pentagon to pay more attention to the continent. "Africa, as can be seen by recent events, is certainly a growing problem," said General James Jones of the Marine Corps, the head of the European Command. "As we pursue the global war on terrorism, we're going to have to go where the terrorists are. And we're seeing some evidence, at least preliminary, that more and more of these large uncontrolled, ungoverned areas are going to be potential havens for that kind of activity." US officials say vast swathes of the Sahara, from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east, which have been smuggling routes for centuries, are becoming areas of choice for terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda. General Jones said an allied armada in the Mediterranean had forced drug smugglers, weapons traffickers, Islamic extremists and other terrorists south to overland routes through Africa. "What we don't want to see in Africa is another Afghanistan, a cancer growing in the middle of nowhere," said Major-General Jeffrey Kohler, the European Command's director of plans and policy, who is to visit Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria this month. Some Africa experts warn that the Pentagon, which promotes the idea of democratisation in other Arab states, ought not to compromise those values by dealing with governments with heavy military influence, like Algeria. "The downside of this is that you can take on the agenda of local leaders," said Herman Cohen, assistant secretary of state for Africa under the first president Bush. The New York Times Related article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,993026,00.html Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
