Last week the White House announced that 100 American combat troops
would be deployed to central Africa. Their mission would be training and
advising forces that are in conflict with the Ugandan Lord's Resistance
Army. Some think the US is only asking for trouble getting involved in
the ethnic war that has been going on for decades. Pepe Escobar, a
correspondent for Asia Times, helps us understand why now.
Source: Asia Times Online
Pepe Escobar
The mineral rush in Africa is already one of the great resource wars of the
21st century. China is ahead, followed by companies from India, Australia,
South Africa and Russia (which, for instance, has set up a fresh gold refinery
in Kampala). The West is lagging behind. The name of the game for the US and
the Europeans is to pull no punches to undermine China's myriad commercial
deals all across Africa.
Then there's the inescapable Pipelineistan angle. Uganda may hold "several
billion barrels of oil", according to Heritage Oil's Paul Atherton, part of a
recent, largest-ever on-shore oil discovery in sub-Saharan Africa. That implies
the construction of a $1.5 billion, 1,200 kilometer long pipeline to Kampala
and the coast of Kenya. Then there's another pipeline from "liberated" South
Sudan. Washington wants to make sure that all this oil will be exclusively
available for the US and Europe.
Obama, the King of Africa
The Obama administration insists the 100 special forces will be "advisers" - not combat troops. Think of Vietnam in the early 1960s; it started with "advisers" - and the rest is history. Now, the "advisers" are even expected to fan out from Uganda to South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
And it's not even the first time this happens. George W Bush tried the same thing in 2008. It ended in unmitigated disaster because of - what else is new - corruption inside the Ugandan army. Kony was tipped off and escaped hours before an attack on his camp.
So on the surface, we have an uplifting narrative of the first black US president deeply disturbed by the "humanitarian crisis" in yet another African nation, Uganda; i n the perfect cover story for Anglo satrapy Uganda will be propped up as an advanced base for Washington to plunge a dagger inside Islamic Africa.
The official Washington spin hammers the fact that the LRA has "murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women and children". Now compare it to devastation perpetrated by Washington, over two decades, on Iraq; at least 1.4 million people killed directly and indirectly, millions of refugees, a Sunni-Shi'ite civil war still in effect and the eastern flank of the Arab nation virtually destroyed.
And compare it to the thunderous silence of the Obama White House as racist eastern Libya "rebels" round up, harass, torture and even snuff out sub-Saharan Africans.
Africa has been fighting like forever against multiple strands of the great white genocidal slave master, aided and abetted by multiple strands of the subservient black dictator/kleptocrat - just to be presented in the early 21st century with an American president of direct African descent who has nothing better to offer than special forces, drones, a militarization surge and hypocrisy-laced "humanitarian" intervention.
The Obama administration insists the 100 special forces will be "advisers" - not combat troops. Think of Vietnam in the early 1960s; it started with "advisers" - and the rest is history. Now, the "advisers" are even expected to fan out from Uganda to South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
And it's not even the first time this happens. George W Bush tried the same thing in 2008. It ended in unmitigated disaster because of - what else is new - corruption inside the Ugandan army. Kony was tipped off and escaped hours before an attack on his camp.
So on the surface, we have an uplifting narrative of the first black US president deeply disturbed by the "humanitarian crisis" in yet another African nation, Uganda; i n the perfect cover story for Anglo satrapy Uganda will be propped up as an advanced base for Washington to plunge a dagger inside Islamic Africa.
The official Washington spin hammers the fact that the LRA has "murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women and children". Now compare it to devastation perpetrated by Washington, over two decades, on Iraq; at least 1.4 million people killed directly and indirectly, millions of refugees, a Sunni-Shi'ite civil war still in effect and the eastern flank of the Arab nation virtually destroyed.
And compare it to the thunderous silence of the Obama White House as racist eastern Libya "rebels" round up, harass, torture and even snuff out sub-Saharan Africans.
Africa has been fighting like forever against multiple strands of the great white genocidal slave master, aided and abetted by multiple strands of the subservient black dictator/kleptocrat - just to be presented in the early 21st century with an American president of direct African descent who has nothing better to offer than special forces, drones, a militarization surge and hypocrisy-laced "humanitarian" intervention.
Pepe Escobar is the author of
Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble
Books, 2007) and
Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book,
just out, is
Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
