Can We Demilitarize U.S. Policy in Africa? In 2021, the House passed a bill that sounds good, but doesn’t end Washington’s failed, militarized approach or get to root problems. https://fpif.org/can-we-demilitarize-u-s-policy-in-africa/?emci=f9f10536-e5ef-eb11-a7ad-501ac57b8fa7&emdi=446c1b75-8cf0-eb11-b563-501ac57b8fa7&ceid=3993183
Troops trained by AFRICOM have been behind nine coups d’etat on the African continent in the thirteen years of the military command’s existence. This news was reported by the Black Alliance for Peace, which does a good job of connecting issues of race and militarism. See www.blackallianceforpeace.com — and much information at various parts of their blog, including this collection of informative resources about AFRICOM, the U.S. military entity that specializes in imposing U.S. militarism upon Africa: https://blackallianceforpeace.com/usoutofafrica
On December 16, this organization’s AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #36 reported this: AFRICOM is the re-colonization of Africa by the U.S., and constitutes the new scramble for Africa tantamount to when, in the 1800s, the colonial powers fought over which of them would dominate which parts of the resource rich continent. One of the forms the new scramble takes is that of militarized interventions that are framed as interventions against domestic terrorist entities. Meanwhile, it is the US/EU/NATO axis of domination that wages a war of terror against African people.
The same organization invites interested person to get more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa by joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network.
2 bad things Biden did against peace: Train an African nation’s military in “counter-insurgency” and OPPOSE re-joining Open Skies Treaty:
The U.S. military has begun training Mozambican security forces to combat an insurgency in their country. It seems twenty years of failure of the military-first “counterterrorism” strategy won’t stop us from exporting it to others.
The Biden administration has indicated that it is unlikely to rejoin the Open Skies Treaty — a crucial transparency agreement with Russia that Trump withdrew from last year. Looks like a trend: Trump makes bad policy. Candidate Biden condemns it. President Biden upholds it.
For too long, military force and myopic power plays have dominated US foreign policy toward Africa. We need an entirely different approach — one that allows ordinary Africans the space to build a more just and democratic continent. Here is “A progressive foreign policy for Africa” by Elizabeth Schmidt, Jacobin
The U.S. government and mainstream media are ramping up fear of Russia’s presence in Africa while downplaying massive U.S. militarism there. See this April 4, 2019, article by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR, www.fair.org): https://fair.org/home/to-ramp-up-fear-of-russia-in-africa-nyt-downplays-massive-us-military-presence-on-continent/?awt_l=H2tV4&awt_m=hw1pIYdHE2R._TQ
