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Africa Trip: Bush Was Shopping for Military Bases

The East African (Nairobi)
ANALYSIS
July 14, 2003
Posted to the web July 16, 2003

By Kevin J. Kelley
New York
As many as 5,000 US troops could be stations at 'forward operating bases' in
parts of the sub-Saharan region
PLANS FOR a strong but selective US military commitment in Africa comprised a
key sub-theme of President George W. Bush's whirlwind tour of the continent
last week.
Mr Bush's public comments on the military aspects of his Africa policy were
largely confined to the question of US troop deployments in Liberia. Behind the
scenes, however, members of the president's entourage assessed African
governments' attitudes regarding Washington's aim of establishing a US military
presence in several sub-Saharan nations.
The brief stopover at Entebbe, for example, likely included discussions on
broader and ongoing US access to military facilities inside Uganda. Pentagon
officials recently made clear that they want to expand existing agreements with
Uganda and five other sub-Saharan nations that now allow refuelling of US
military aircraft.
Uganda could become the second site of US troop concentrations in East Africa.
Kampala's close ties with Washington may make Uganda a likelier choice than
Kenya for hosting American forces on a semi-permanent basis. President Yoweri
Museveni seems much more inclined than President Mwai Kibaki to welcome US
troops onto his country's soil. Besides, Washington already has an agreement
with Nairobi that allows US forces to make periodic use of air and sea bases in
Kenya.
Some 1,800 American soldiers are now stationed in Djibouti at a rudimentary
camp that may be seen as a prototype for the "family of bases" that Marine
Corps General James Jones says the Pentagon plans to establish throughout
Africa.
As many as 5,000 US troops could be stationed at "forward operating bases" in
parts of the sub-Saharan region, The New York Times reported last week. US
Special Forces may meanwhile be sent to more lightly equipped bases in Africa
to carry out specific missions, the newspaper added. The Pentagon does not
intend to build large new installations of its own in Africa, but would instead
upgrade existing military facilities in perhaps half a dozen countries,
potentially including Algeria, Mali, Ghana and Senegal as well as Uganda or
Kenya.
The focus would be on preventing international terrorist networks from hitting
US interests in Africa or using lawless territories, like southern Somalia, as
training grounds.
The planned move into Africa highlights the historic shift in US military
strategy occasioned by the September 2001 terrorist strikes on New York and
Washington. Less emphasis is being placed on traditional defence arrangements
in Europe, while more attention will go to counter-terrorism operations in what
US military planners term an "arc of instability" stretching through the Middle
East and sub-Saharan Africa and into western and central Asia.
Ensuring greater access to West African oil is an important aim of the evolving
shifts in US global power projection. Gen Jones has said that US Navy and
Marine units will probably spend less time in the Mediterranean and more time
patrolling West Africa's coast.
The intensified US military engagement with Africa signifies the dramatically
different way in which Bush views Africa in the post-September 11 world. While
Bush was campaigning for the White House more than a year prior to the
destruction of the World Trade Centre, he declared, "While Africa may be
important, it doesn't fit into the national strategic interests, as far as I
can see them."
But the president still wants the new US military commitment to Africa to be
made squarely on American terms. In accordance with this vision, American
troops will be stationed in Africa to reinforce US national security and to
protect US investments in strategic resources, mainly oil. Washington does not
intend to become heavily involved in efforts to quell local conflicts in
Africa.
American strategic thinkers continue to be strongly influenced by the failure
of the US-led intervention in Somalia a decade ago. President Bill Clinton
quickly abandoned that military operation after 18 US soldiers were killed in
an ambush in Mogadishu in 1993. Since then, the Pentagon has been firmly
opposed to inserting US forces into chaotic situations in countries of little
or no strategic importance to the United States.

   

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