U.S. Expands Its Secret War In Africa

"Ad hoc global 'counter-terrorism' efforts that began under President George W. Bush, and were encouraged by Obama, have now become institutionalized -- and the bureaucracy that wages U.S. 'secret wars' will continue to expand for the next couple of years, particularly in Africa," Oxford Analytica observed in a recent assessment.

"Reliance on Special Forces and the CIA will increase in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future as conventional force numbers decline and move into a supporting role."

The Americans' ability to wage Special Operations wars on a global scale has been strengthened by the creation of relatively small, often unobtrusive, military bases.

"Washington is in the process of a massive expansion of what are referred to internally as 'lily pads' that allow it a global strike capability," Oxford Analytica noted.

These include facilities in Kenya, Uganda, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean off East Africa. Western military sources say the Americans are seeking to establish a base in newly independent South Sudan as well.

It's not hard to see why the Americans are suddenly so interested in Africa after virtually ignoring it for decades.
West Africa is emerging as a vital oil-producing zone, that's attracting China and India because of its mineral resources, including arable farmland, which they need to sustain their burgeoning economies.

East Africa is on the cusp of a major oil and natural gas bonanza, which makes it of particular interest to Beijing and New Delhi because its energy and mineral wealth can be shipped directly eastward across the Indian Ocean.


As it happens, most of these are autocratic and even dictatorial regimes with a grotesque record of brutality, corruption and coups as they plunder their countries' wealth.

Here Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso spring to mind.

The energy booms under way will only strengthen those regimes and forestall any move toward democracy and good governance.

Africans see the U.S. Africa Command as little more than an instrument to protect U.S. investment, particularly oil and gas.

Indeed, some analysts suspect these developments will drive Africans toward groups like al-Qaida and its allies in North Africa, Nigeria and Somalia, which will in turn trigger U.S. "secret war" military operations to contain them, as are now taking place in Somalia and nearby Yemen.

Via: "United Press International"