TADJOURA, Djibouti – In hundreds of military training programs from the Sahara to the Seychelles, the U.S. is quietly bolstering Africa’s ragtag armies to fight extremism so the Pentagon won’t have to.
Some experts have taken to calling this strategy — not always admiringly — “America’s African Rifles” after an indigenous African unit organized by Britain to fight its bloody colonial wars of the 19th Century.
Over the past five years, 21 African countries have hosted military instructors in the biggest-ever U.S. training effort on the continent.
Green Berets have taught troops from impoverished Niger how to parachute from planes. Ugandans have been shown how to patrol their lakes in speedboats. And some 39,000 African troops have cycled through U.S. peacekeeping courses.
Soldiers in the Djibouti branch of this vast effort speak spare, unplaceable English. They are U.S. military trainers from Guam — Bravo Company, 1/294th Infantry Battalion.
“We’ve worked with hundreds of Kenyans, Ethiopians and now Djiboutians,” said Staff Sgt. Albert Ignacio, 44, a fireplug of a man who had spent just 45 days at home during a three-year stint in Africa. “Africans are hungry for our help. They have so little. Most of the time, they don’t even have ammo to shoot. We bring it.”
In fact, the Pentagon has been bringing ammo and expertise to its African allies with a single-minded purpose since 9/11. Maintaining such programs will be one of the goals of AFRICOM. Yet in the Horn of Africa, the use of such proxy forces has had alarming results.
Critics say the administration’s decision to back the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in late 2006 has backfired, strengthening Somali extremist groups and damaging counter-terrorism efforts. Today a deadly Islamist insurgency threatens to overrun the capital, Mogadishu, and topple a frail, U.S.-supported government. Inviting comparisons with Iraq, the violence has displaced roughly a million civilians.
Ignacio took a long view of U.S. involvement in Africa.
“We’re back in Cold War mode,” he said, recalling how he trained Honduran forces during Ronald Reagan’s shadow conflicts with the Soviets in Central America. “When will we be done here? Not for a long time.”
- Chicago Tribune
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FORUM | 3 Comments
Bad news for Africa.Very bad indeed.
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November 21st, 2008 at 10:04 AM
This base in Djibouti will no longer exist once the Somali people are free from foreign occupation and the Ethiopian people are free from Woyanne tyranny. The Woyanne regime is getting all its training and funding from the US in the name of fighting terrorism while in reality it is them and their puppets who are terrorizing the people of the Horn of Africa. Adventurism always leads to failure and this adventure will fail soon.
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November 21st, 2008 at 11:33 AM
USA is running from one corner to another corner blindly and created an evile alliance with un popular repressive regimes like melese , now USA is the losser of the war ever where.China, india and russia are coming back with un finishable natural resources, not like USA with unpayable debates from china 2,8 trilions dollars , from japan / saudi arabia ? kwbaite? . So USA DRY DREAM TO BE the world supper power evapourated in the air.
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November 21st, 2008 at 10:17 PM