re: "Our defense strategy"

Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive ("the paratrooper of love") is following SecDef Gates' debate with himself.

Money quote(s):

"When I took early retirement from Special Forces I served several years as a First Sergeant in the Wisconsin Guard and when asked in 1999, I told my troops "There is absolutely no way we will be in any land war that requires National Guard Infantry to be called up". It pays not to make absolute statements."

It's unclear to me how, as late as 1999, Uncle Jimbo could have thought this. We'd already been through Desert Storm, where, to be fair, no sizeable NG infantry formations were deployed, and through three years of Balkan involvement (Operation Joint Endeavor, IFOR, SFOR, &tc.) which had heavy reserve component involvement.

"MacArthur managed to limit his limiting of Presidential and Congressional authority to simply crossing Asia of the list of places we should do land war. Gates has upped the ante and eliminated two continents and the most volatile region on Earth. I think he was right the first time and that since we don't know who and where we may end up fighting then we should make sure to maintain our best deterrents and combat systems."

S&S - AFRICOM pleased with Capitol Hill trip. No talk of budget cuts or restructuring during Gen. Ward’s appearance before House panel.

From my archive of press clippings:

Stars and Stripes

AFRICOM pleased with Capitol Hill trip

No talk of budget cuts or restructuring during Gen. Ward’s appearance before House panel

By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes

European edition, Sunday, March 29, 2009

Gen. William "Kip" Ward, Commander of the U.S. Africa Command.

STUTTGART, Germany — Gen. William "Kip" Ward couldn’t be blamed if he thought he was headed for a grilling from the congressional subcommittee that controls the purse strings for defense programs.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Following its rollout in 2007, AFRICOM has been engaged in something of a public relations war as it seeks to explain itself to people far and wide."

"Perhaps the lack of a showdown on Capitol Hill is a sign that the new command is making progress on the PR front. A Government Accountability Office report released this month noted that AFRICOM has made strides in its efforts to explain itself in Africa and to other U.S. agencies that feared a further militarization of U.S. foreign policy.

Still, skepticism persists about AFRICOM both in Africa and within U.S. diplomatic circles and nongovernmental aid groups, with which the command works in partnership, according to the GAO report. "

&

"An African headquarters was part of the initial plan, announced by President George W. Bush in 2007, but the concept provoked a firestorm of controversy and suspicion in Africa about U.S. intentions on the continent. It didn’t take long for the military to abandon the idea, but suspicions linger."

JO - Coup d'état

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

Coup d'état

PATRICK WILMOT

Saturday, March 28, 2009

The English have no equivalent for coup d'état, the violent seizure of state power by armed groups. The tradition of the coup was begun in Europe and became the favoured means of changing governments in Latin America for almost two centuries.

PATRICK WILMOT

But for most of the latter half of the 20th century the coup became associated with the instability and bad government of Africa. Coups were generally of two types. In the first Western intelligence agencies used covert methods to remove governments they disliked.

Read the whole article here.

_____

Patrick Wilmot, who is based in London, is a writer and commentator on African affairs for the BBC, Sky News, Al-Jazeera and CNN. He's a visiting professor at Ahmadu Bello and Jos universities in Nigeria.

S&S - GAO: AFRICOM must end misperceptions. Report says agency must better convey its mission, focus.

Stars and Stripes



GAO: AFRICOM must end misperceptions


Report says agency must better convey its mission, focus


By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes

Mideast edition, Friday, April 3, 2009

Matthew Bookwalter/Courtesy of U.S. Navy
Lt. Cmdr. Shay Razmi, a dental officer, examines the teeth of students from the Twin-City Special School for the Mentally Handicapped on March 5 during the USS Nashville’s 18-day port visit to Sekondi, Ghana, in support of Africa Partnership Station.

U.S. Africa Command needs to do a better job of conveying its mission and focus, if it is to overcome lingering concerns that the Defense Department is trying to militarize U.S. foreign policy in Africa, according to a government report issued last week.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Combating those misperceptions about its role on the African continent is one of three hurdles to the ultimate success of the Pentagon’s newest combatant command, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The GAO found problems with AFRICOM’s efforts to integrate its headquarters staff with personnel from other agencies, such as the State and Treasury departments. "

JG - Patois Bible in Pan-African and Pan-Caribbean context

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Gleaner

Patois Bible in Pan-African and Pan-Caribbean context

published: Sunday June 29, 2008

Gosnell L. Yorke, Contributor

WHAT IS true mainly of the coastal regions of Africa and elsewhere in the world is also true of the Caribbean as a whole - including Jamaica. And that is: we have witnessed the not-yet-fully understood global linguistic phenomenon involving what scholars have called the "pidginisation" and, ultimately, the "creolisation" of the various languages of Europe and elsewhere - be it Dutch, English, French or Spanish in the case of the Caribbean. As we know, these four aforementioned languages were imperially imposed on our African ancestors who were forced, against their collective wills, to toil as slaves on several sugar plantations throughout the Caribbean; to work as hewers of wood and drawers of water. Because our ancestors, by and large, were not allowed to live and work together in their ethnic groups (or tribes), they were not able to communicate with each other through the use of their mother tongues - be it Akan, Balanta, Igbo or Yoruba from West Africa or wherever. This situation not only helped to discourage our enslaved ancestors from plotting their escape from their masters' dehumanising treatment (or worse) but it also meant that our ancestors were forced to creatively adopt and adapt the language of their European masters as well. This created a complex situation in which the various European languages, serving as lexifier languages, were blended with the various African mother tongues to produce, over time, some new bona fide languages we now call Creoles (not dialects). 'Divide and rule' That is, pidginisation and later creolisation were made inevitable by the slave masters' linguistic policy of 'divide and rule'. In sociolinguistic terms, the more powerful European 'High' or H language was brought into contact with the relatively powerless African 'Low' or L language. This accounts for the fact that the Caribbean is now one of the best places on the planet to study the creolisation of such European languages. For example, out of a total of about 80 Creoles spoken worldwide, about 30 of them are spoken right here in the Caribbean, alone.

Read the whole article here.

_____

Dr Gosnell L. York, is professor of religion in the School of Religion and Theology at Northern Caribbean University (NCU) and a former translation consultant with the Africa Area of the United Bible Societies - the parent body of the Bible Society of the West Indies.

S&S - Visits designed to change perceptions among African nations

From my archive of press clippings:

Stars and Stripes

Visits designed to change perceptions among African nations

By Charlie Coon, Stars and Stripes

Mideast edition, Sunday, June 29, 2008

STUTTGART, Germany - Words sometimes backfire.

"We will work closely with our African partners to determine an appropriate location for the new command in Africa," President Bush said on Feb. 6, 2007, in announcing the U.S. Africa Command.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Since he took over AFRICOM on Oct. 1, Gen. William E. "Kip" Ward and his deputies have been visiting dozens of African countries.

Their mission is to explain what the United States really intends and, perhaps more importantly, to listen to advice."

"(I)n the months before Ward came on board, listening to anyone except each other didn’t seem to be part of the AFRICOM program.

When the idea was introduced to the public, many in Africa were surprised and taken aback."

"Ward and AFRICOM officials have been telling anyone who will listen that AFRICOM is merely a consolidation under one roof of activities the U.S. military has been conducting for years.

U.S. Special Forces, Navy SEALs, Marines and others have traveled to African nations to train troops and otherwise co-mingle.

Small medical teams have dropped in locales and provided first aid. Military engineers have dug wells and built buildings.

These are things for which African nations have asked, Ward said.

No one forces it upon them.

The military training, he said, is especially coveted."

&

"The Pentagon requested $389 million for AFRICOM for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, which represents a sliver of the Defense Department’s request of $515 billion for its basic budget (it asks for more for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan)."

JO - Will Africa catch up?

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

Will Africa catch up?

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Dear Editor,


Watching on TV the handover of power in America with former leaders, Opposition members and people of all walks of life present made me wonder when Africa will catch up!In many African countries, the Opposition or former presidents would not have attended. Some would even say that the elections were not free and fair.

Read the whole letter here.

JO - The politics of race

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

The politics of race

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Dear Editor,

The system of government originated in Africa. Humanity itself began in Africa. I stress these points mainly because, in spite of Barack Obama's clear-cut qualifications to be president of the United States, many ignorant non-blacks are scrutinising his ability to effectively hold the post strictly on the basis of race. For some, the very notion of a black man claiming the highest political office of a so-called first-world country, even with his biracial genealogy, is a threat to every nefarious falsehood they've ever held about black people.

Read the whole letter here.

JO - Empire and enigmas

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

Empire and enigmas

HEART TO HEART

With Betty Ann Blaine

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Dear Reader,

The story of Africa in general, and Zimbabwe in particular, has a recurrent theme. It is a story of old wounds and present realities - a story of empire and enigmas. It is as much a story of the evils of the British Empire as it is a story of a modern-day despot. Zimbabwe's current crisis cannot be fully understood without an examination of the past. Like all of colonised Africa, many of the country's problems have their roots in slavery and colonialism, and the attendant socio-economic and political dynamics of ethnicity and inequality.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"The carving up of Africa, commonly referred to as the "partition" or the "scramble", was much more than the sharing up of the continent among European powers for profit and for power. The indiscriminate butchering of the land cut into and across age-old cultural and linguistic boundaries in a manner that left with it deep and long-lasting consequences on almost every country in Africa, including Zimbabwe.

On November 15, 1884, an international conference was convened in Berlin. Present was every nation of Europe, save Switzerland and the United States of America, 14 in all."

Personally, I object to America being classified as a European nation, either today or in 1884.