Exporting Bush's Iraq Mistakes To Africa

This story tells you everything you need to know about the Bush government's obstinate stupidity, their money-making links to the US military-industrial complex, and why most people in the world now see the USA as the biggest single threat to their future: U.S. Pushes Anti-Terrorism in Africa.

That's right. Instead of spending $500 million (and much, much more) on addressing chronic African issues of famine, poverty, disease and lack of education, the US government is spending the money arming and training soldiers across Africa for the War On Ahem! This dunderheaded approach means the USA is preparing to do everything wrong in Africa that they have already done wrong in Iraq. Not suprisingly, many of the alleged "terrorists" spreading into Africa are now coming from Iraq!

The thrust into Africa is vital to head off an infiltration by international terrorist groups, according to senior U.S. military, Pentagon and State Department officials. The groups are recruiting hundreds of members in Africa and Europe, attacking local governments and Western interests, and profiting from tribal smuggling routes to obtain arms, cash and hideouts, they say. Meanwhile, small groups of Islamic radicals are moving into Africa from Iraq, where Africans make up about a quarter of the foreign fighters, the officials say.

Foreshadowing a new phase in the war against terrorism, the Pentagon plan is to mobilize Africans to fight and preempt militant groups while only selectively using U.S. troops, who are already taxed by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in mustering African forces, the U.S. military confronts not only a highly elusive enemy across a vast, desolate terrain but also the competing agendas of authoritarian African governments and corrupt and chaotic militaries on the ground.

The article includes a description of US foces training military recruits in Chad. Substitute "Iraq" for "Chad" and you could be reading any one of dozens of descriptions of the USA's fruitless (and mostly PR-focussed) efforts to train Iraqi forces for the semi-mystical "handover".