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US Africa Command trims its ambitions
The US Africa Command, designed to boost America's image and prevent terrorist inroads on the continent, has scaled back its ambitions after African governments refused to host it and aid groups protested plans to expand the military's role in economic development in the region.
- By Karen DeYoung, Los Angeles Times-Washington Pos News Service
- Published: 23:35 June 1, 2008
Washington: The US Africa Command, designed to boost America's image and prevent terrorist inroads on the continent, has scaled back its ambitions after African governments refused to host it and aid groups protested plans to expand the military's role in economic development in the region.
Africom, due to begin operations October 1, will now be based for the foreseeable future in Stuttgart, Germany, with five smaller regional offices planned for the continent on hold while the military searches for places to put them.
Cooperation sought
Nonmilitary jobs, created within Africom to highlight new cooperation between the Pentagon and the State Department, have been hard to fill and will initially total fewer than 50 of 1,300 headquarters personnel. Plans to broaden the military's more traditional overseas training and liaison responsibilities to include development and relief tasks were curbed after US-funded aid groups sharply objected to working alongside troops.
"I think in some respects we probably didn't do as good a job as we should have when we rolled out Africom," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said recently.
"I wasn't there," when the command was conceived by his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, and approved by President Bush, he added.
"I don't think we should push African governments to a place they don't really want to go in terms of relationships," Gates said.
Planning for Africom began in 2006, when the Bush administration designated Africa an area of "strategic concern" and policymakers cited a number of "pre-conflict" situations there.
Based on lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the US military is deeply involved in civil affairs and economic development efforts, Africom was fashioned as a template for a new interagency structure that would coordinate "hard" and "soft" US power.
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