Recently 4 US troops perished in a combat mission when they were attacked in Niger raising awareness across the US and world of the growing US military presence in Africa through the US military program known as AFRICOM.
Tbe following is an excerpt from Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column entitled "AFRICOM is the Question" at the Black Agenda Report site https://blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-africom-question
"Few people realize that such a thing as the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM ) exists and that the military forces of most African nations have been under the de facto control of this country since the George W. Bush administration.
There is similar silence about the role that the United States played in bringing groups designated as terrorists into nations such as Niger and Mali. The decision to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi in Libya is directly responsible for Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda affiliate groups gaining a foothold throughout the region. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and their NATO partners in crime were not just responsible for the deaths of thousands of Libyans, slavery in that country, and an ongoing humanitarian crisis. They are responsible for bringing state sponsored terror to the entire region."
On the topic of military service, Margaret Kimberley states "Black people should feel no need to validate themselves through military service or any other undertaking. As the people who have suffered through centuries of unpaid labor, Jim Crow apartheid and constant oppression, we should feel no need to uphold this system. Yet we have already proven a willingness to die for the interests of a corrupt and dangerous state."
She continues, "Any discussion about Sergeant Johnson (the Black US soldier who recently perished in Niger) ought to point out that he was a victim of the poverty draft. Before enlisting he worked at Walmart, a sure path to continued poverty or to the dubious odds offered by the army. Trump said that Johnson "knew what he signed up for" but that is probably not true. He took a chance and hoped for the best. Unfortunately the machinations of Bush, Obama, Clinton and Trump made his choice a bad one. "
Nick Turse, writer for online magazine Vice. com, explains that Sergeant Johnson is a casuality of a wider United States Military involvement in Africa: https://news.vice.com/story/us-military-secret-missions-africa
"U.S. troops are now conducting 3,500 exercises, programs, and engagements per year, an average of nearly 10 missions per day, on the African continent, according to the U.S. military's top commander for Africa, General Thomas Waldhauser. The latest numbers, which the Pentagon confirmed to VICE News, represent a dramatic increase in U.S. military activity throughout Africa in the past decade, and the latest signal of America's deepening and complicated ties on the continent."
Department of Defense General 'Mad Dog' Mattis, has told Senators that the US operations will soon increase dramatically. Such growth is evidence in more statistics from Nick Turse's Vice article:
"When U.S. Africa Command, the umbrella organization for U.S. military operations on the continent, first became operational in 2008, it inherited 172 missions, activities, programs, and exercises from other combatant commands. Five years in, that number shot up to 546. , , , Today's figure of 3,500 marks an astounding 1,900 percent increase since the command was activated less than a decade ago, and suggests a major expansion of U.S. military activities on the African continent. "
NJ's Jim Brash, founder of the NJ Green Party Black Caucus and administrator of "U.S. Military Out of Africa Now!-NJ" Facebook group has this to say about AFRICOM:
" AFRICOM is just the latest manifestation of U.S. imperialism on the African Continent. The US and its junior partners which includes Benelux, France, Italy, & Great Britain, have positioned themselves as the long-term beneficiaries of Africa's wealth, since the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. They've done this thru war; political & economic intimidation; exacerbating tribal rivalries; instigating new tribal rivalries where there previously were none conflict where there, and by drawing up borders on maps that suited the interests of Anglo-European capital. "
"This generation has seen the murder of former Libyan leader. M. Qadafi , as instigated by U.S. led foreign interests. A previous generation saw this same cabal instigate the murder of Congolese President Patrice Lumumba. "
" The US military industrial complex is not now nor has ever been a friend to the African people. Its friendliness is a cover for the exploitation necessary to insure Anglo-European profits & continental domination."
AFRICOM's presence will only deepen the quagmire of debt, disease, famine, civil war, and political servitude the majority of African peoples are dealing with via the collaborationist governments they're living under. We are demanding the USA out of Africa Now! We are demanding the full withdrawal of all foreign military forces, including the U.N. peacekeepers from the African continent. We're also demanding full reparations by Anglo-European powers for the long-lasting affects of colonialism and for the further machinations by these same said powers during the post-colonial era."
An anti-war stance should educate about America's escalating conflicts in African countries and their repercussions. Instead of exploiting Africa's material wealth in crops, mining and other goods the US should provide support for developments in medicine and education. Resources should be provided to aid in resoliving destruction caused by American Military missions into Niger and other African countries.
Jim Brash of Green Party NJ Black Caucus believes that more could be done educating Americans about United States' Military interventions. He says: "We need to also develop a grassroots effort in our communities about the US creeping military occupation among youth, churches, mosques and community based organizations about the nefarious role of the US in Africa and our need to resist. We need to be poised to take to the streets and to include speakers at anti-war rallies about the US war in Africa."
We've formed a facebook discussion group, that I for one hope will lead to protests outside of various UN missions and embassies, & eventually lead to a March on the U.N. itself, that will bring the pillaging, the manipulation, and the further militarization of the African continent by Anglo-European powers to the attention of the global community.
