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<font size="4" class="">Category Archives: <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">Libya</span></font></h1>
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<a href="https://danglazebrook.com/2017/10/21/after-gaddafi-the-wests-reconquest-of-africa/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">10.21.17</a></div>
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by <a class="url n fn" href="https://danglazebrook.com/author/danglazebrook2000/" title="View all posts by danglazebrook" rel="author" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">danglazebrook</a></div>
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<a href="https://danglazebrook.com/2017/10/21/after-gaddafi-the-wests-reconquest-of-africa/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(255, 102, 51);" class=""><font size="4" class="">AFTER
GADDAFI: THE WEST’S RECONQUEST OF AFRICA</font></a></h1>
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<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<img class="" src="https://nowaraga.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/gaddafi2.jpg?w=680&h=453" width="680" height="453" style="max-width: 100%; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4) 0px 0px 3px; border-radius: 3px; height: auto;"></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
</p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">Exactly six years ago, on October 20th 2011, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was murdered, joining a long list of African
revolutionaries martyred by the West for daring to dream of continental independence. Earlier that day, Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte had been occupied by Western-backed militias, following a month-long battle during which NATO and their ‘rebel’ allies pounded
the city’s hospitals and residents with artillery, cut off its water and electricity, and publicly proclaimed their </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8728752/Libya-crisis-Rebel-leaders-hoping-to-starve-Gaddafi-stronghold-of-Sirte-into-submission.html" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">desire
to ‘starve [the city] into submission’</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">. The last defenders of the city, including Gaddafi, fled Sirte that
morning, but their convoy was tracked and strafed by NATO jets, killing 95 people. Gaddafi escaped the wreckage but was captured shortly afterwards. I will spare you the gruesome details, which the Western media </span><a href="https://danglazebrookdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/3e559-gaddafiinukmedia.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">gloatingly
broadcast</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">across the world as a triumphant snuff movie, suffice to say that he was tortured and eventually
shot dead. We now know, if testimony from NATO’s key Libyan ally Mahmoud Jibril is to be believed, that it was a foreign agent, likely French, who </span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210759/Gaddafi-killed-French-secret-serviceman-orders-Nicolas-Sarkozy-sources-claim.html" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">delivered
the fatal bullet</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">. His death was the culmination of not only seven months of NATO aggression, but of a campaign
against Gaddafi and his movement that </span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Destroying-Libya-World-Order-THree-Decade/dp/0985335378/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508492423&sr=1-2" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">the
West had been waging for over three decades</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">Yet it was also the opening salvo in a new war – a war for the militarily recolonisation of Africa.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">The year 2009, two years before Gaddafi’s murder, was a pivotal one for US-African relations. First, because China
surpassed the US as the continent’s largest trading partner; and second, because Gaddafi was elected President of the African Union. The significance of both for the decline of US influence on the continent could not be clearer. Whilst Gaddafi was spearheading </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8000761.stm" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">attempts
to unite Africa politically</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, committing </span><a href="https://www.modernghana.com/news/430695/1/africans-will-remember-gaddafi-for-one-important-a.html" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">serious
amounts of Libyan oil wealth</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> to make this dream a reality, China was quietly smashing the West’s monopoly
over export markets and investment finance. Africa no longer had to go cap-in-hand to the IMF for loans, agreeing to whatever self-defeating terms were on offer, but could turn to China – </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-politics-catalonia-election/spanish-government-aims-for-january-regional-elections-in-catalonia-psoe-idUSKBN1CP0SB" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">or
indeed Libya</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> – for investment. And if the US threatened to cut them off from their markets, China would happily
buy up whatever was on offer. Western economic domination of Africa was under threat as never before.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">The response from the West, of course, was a military one. Economic dependence on the West – rapidly being shattered
by Libya and China – would be replaced by a new military dependence. If African countries would no longer come begging for Western loans, export markets and investment finance, they would have to be put in a position where they would come begging for Western
military aid.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">To this end, AFRICOM – the US army’s new ‘African command’ – had been launched the previous year, but humiliatingly
for George W Bush, not a single African country would agree to host its HQ; instead, it was forced to open shop in Stuttgart, Germany. Gaddafi had led African opposition to AFRICOM, as exasperated US diplomatic memos later revealed by wikileaks made clear.
And US pleas to African leaders to embrace AFRICOM in the ‘fight against terrorism’ fell on deaf ears. After all, as Muattisim Gaddafi, head of Libyan security, had explained to Hillary Clinton in 2009, North Africa already had an effective security system
in place, through the African Union’s ‘standby forces’, on the one hand, and CEN-SAD on the other. CEN-SAD was a regional security organisation of Sahel and Saharan states, with a well-functioning security system, with Libya as the lynchpin. The sophisticated
Libyan-led counter-terror structure meant there was simply no need for a US military presence. The job of Western planners, then, was to create such a need.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">NATO’s destruction of Libya simultaneously achieved three strategic goals for the West’s plans for military expansion
in Africa. Most obviously, it removed the biggest obstacle and opponent of such expansion, Gaddafi himself. With Gaddafi gone, and with a quiescent pro-NATO puppet government in charge of Libya, there was no longer any chance that Libya would any longer act
as a powerful force against Western militarism: quite the contrary – Libya’s new government was utterly dependent on such militarism, and knew it. Secondly, NATO’s aggression served to bring about a total collapse of the delicate but effective North African
security system, which had been underpinned by Libya. And finally, NATO’s annihilation of the Libyan state effectively turned the country over to the region’s death squads and terror groups. These groups were then able to loot Libya’s military arsenals and
set up training camps at their leisure, using these to expand operations right across the region. It is no coincidence that almost all of the recent terror attacks in North Africa – not to mention Manchester – have been either prepared in Libya or perpetrated
by fighters trained in Libya. Boko Haram, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, ISIS, Mali’s Ansar Dine, and literally dozens of others, have all </span><a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/how-the-wests-war-on-libya-boosted-boko-haram/15009#.WenUWUuGPEY" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">greatly
benefitted from the destruction of Libya</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">. By ensuring the spread of terror groups across the region, the Western
powers had magically created a demand for their military assistance which hitherto did not exist. They had literally created a </span><a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/western-foreign-policy-protection-racket-2036865486" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">protection
racket</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> for Africa. In an excellent piece of research published last year, </span><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/even-africoms-own-commander-admits-their-strategy-is-not-working/" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Nick
Turse</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> notes how the increase in AFRICOM operations across the continent has correlated precisely with the
rise in terror threats: it’s growth, he notes, has been accompanied by “increasing numbers of lethal terror attacks across the continent including those in Burkina Faso, </span><a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=201512310032" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Burundi</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, </span><a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=201502040056" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Cameroon</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">,</span><a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=201405010070" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Central
African Republic</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, </span><a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/suicide-attacks-rock-chad-nigeria/2857885.html" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Chad</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">,
Côte d’Ivoire, </span><a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=201512290044" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Democratic
Republic of the Congo</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, </span><a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=201512310022" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Ethiopia</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, </span><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32169080" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Kenya</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">,
Mali, </span><a href="http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fg-worldwide-terror/" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Niger</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">,</span><a href="http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fg-worldwide-terror/" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Nigeria</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, </span><a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-03-22/paris-there-have-been-hundreds-terrorist-attacks-many-have-gone-unnoticed" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Somalia</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, </span><a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=201401310055" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">South
Sudan</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, and </span><a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-03-22/paris-there-have-been-hundreds-terrorist-attacks-many-have-gone-unnoticed" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Tunisia</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">.
In fact, data from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland</span><a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?region=11" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">shows</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> that
attacks have spiked over the last decade, roughly coinciding with AFRICOM’s establishment. In 2007, just before it </span><a href="http://www.africom.mil/about-the-command" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">became</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> an
independent command, there were fewer than 400 such incidents annually in sub-Saharan Africa. Last year, the number </span><a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?start_yearonly=2007&end_yearonly=2015&start_year=&start_month=&start_day=&end_year=&end_month=&end_day=®ion=11&asmSelect0=&asmSelect1=&dtp2=all&success=yes&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">reached</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> nearly
2,000.” By AFRICOM’s own official standards, of course, this is a demonstration of massive failure. Viewed from the perspective of the protection racket, however, it is a resounding success, with US military power smoothly reproducing the conditions for its
own expansion.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">This is the Africa policy Trump has now inherited. But because this policy has rarely been understood as the protection
racket it really is, many commentators have, as with so many of Trump’s policies, mistakenly believed he is somehow ‘ignoring’ or ‘reversing’ the approach of his predecessors. In fact, far from abandoning this approach, Trump is escalating it with relish.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">What the Trump administration is doing, as it is doing in pretty much every policy area, is stripping the previous
policy of its ‘soft power’ niceties to reveal and extend the iron fist which has in fact been in the driving seat all along. Trump, with his </span><a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2017-07-18/the-us-is-losing-the-battle-for-influence-in-africa" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">open
disdain for Africa</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, has effectively ended US development aid for Africa – slashing overall African aid levels
by one third, and transferring responsibility for much of the rest from the Agency for International Development to the Pentagon – whilst openly tying aid to the advancement of “US national security objectives”. In other words, the US has made a strategic
decision to drop the carrot in favour of the stick. Given the overwhelming superiority of Chinese development assistance, this is unsurprising. The US has decided to stop trying to compete in this area, and instead to ruthlessly and unambiguously pursue the
military approach which the Bush and Obama administrations had already mapped out.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">To this end, Trump has stepped up drone attacks, </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/17/somalia-bomber-was-ex-solider-whose-town-was-raided-by-us-forces" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">removing
the (limited) restrictions</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">that had been in place during the Obama era. The result has been a ramping up of
civilian casualties, and consequently of the resentment and hatred which fuels militant recruitment. It is unlikely to be a coincidence, for example, that the Al Shabaab truck bombing that killed over 300 people in Mogadishu last weekend was carried out by
men from a town in which had suffered a major drone attack on civilians, including women and children, in August. Indeed, a detailed </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/07/african-governments-actions-push-people-into-extremism-study-finds" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">study
by the United Nations</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> recently concluded that in “a majority of cases, state action appears to be the primary
factor finally pushing individuals into violent extremism in Africa”. Of more than 500 former members of militant organisations interviewed for the report, 71% pointed to “government action”, including “killing of a family member or friend” or “arrest of a
family member or friend” as the incident that prompted them to join a group. And so the cycle continues: drone attacks breed recruitment, which breeds further terror attacks, which leaves the states involved more dependent on US military support. Thus does
the West create the demand for its own ‘products’.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">It does so in another way as well. Alexander Cockburn, in his book ‘Kill Chain’, explains how the policy of ‘targeted
killings’ – another Obama policy ramped up under Trump – also increases the militancy of insurgent groups. Cockburn, reporting on a discussion with US soldiers about the efficacy of targeted killings, wrote that: “When the topic of conversation came round
to ways of defeating the [roadside] bombs, everyone was in agreement. ‘They would have charts up on the wall showing the insurgent cells they were facing, often with the names and pictures of the guys running them,’ Rivolo remembers. ‘When we asked about going
after the high-value individuals and what effect it was having, they’d say, ‘Oh yeah, we killed that guy last month, and we’re getting more IEDs than ever.’ They all said the same thing, point blank: ‘[O]nce you knock them off, a day later you have a new guy
who’s smarter, younger, more aggressive and is out for revenge.”’</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<a href="http://bostonreview.net/blog/alex-de-waal-assassinating-terrorists-does-not-work" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">Alex
de Waal has noted how this is certainly true in Somalia</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, where, he notes,“each dead leader is followed by
a more radical deputy. After a failed attempt in January 2007, the United States killed al Shabaab’s commander, Aden Hashi Farah Ayro, in a May 2008 air strike. Ayro’s successor, Ahmed Abdi Godane (alias Mukhtar Abu Zubair), was worse, affiliating the organization
with al Qaeda. The United States succeeded in assassinating Godane in September 2014. In turn, Godane was succeeded by an even more determined extremist, Ahmad Omar (Abu Ubaidah).” It was presumably Omar who ordered the recent attack in Mogadishu, the worst
in the country’s recent history. “If targeted killing remains a central strategy of the War on Terror”, De Waal wrote, “it is set to be an endless war.”</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">But endless war is the whole point. For not only does it force African countries, finally freeing themselves from
dependence on the IMF, into dependence on AFRICOM; it also undermines China’s blossoming relationship with Africa.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">Chinese trade and investment in Africa continues to grow apace. According to the </span><a href="http://www.sais-cari.org/" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">China-Africa
Research Initiative </a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">at John Hopkins University, Chinese FDI stocks in Africa have risen from just 2% of the
value of US stocks in 2003 to 55% in 2015, when they totalled US$35 billion. This proportion is likely to rapidly increase, given that “Between 2009 and 2012, China’s direct investment in Africa grew at an annual rate of 20.5%, while levels of US FDI flows
to Africa declined by US$8 billion in the wake of the global financial crisis”. Chinese-African trade, meanwhile, topped $100billion in 2015.</span></p>
<p style="border: 0px; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; orphans: 4; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-variant-ligatures: normal; widows: 2;" class="">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">China’s signature ‘One Belt One Road’ policy – to which President Xi Jinping has pledged </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-silkroad-africa/china-pledges-124-billion-for-new-silk-road-as-champion-of-globalization-idUSKBN18A02I" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">$124billion </a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> to
create global trade routes designed to facilitate $2trillion worth of annual trade – will also help to improve African links with China. Trump’s policy towards the project was </span><a href="https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21727089-donald-trumps-adviser-has-gone-his-ideas-stick-around-future-bannonism" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 160, 219); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">summarised
by Steve Bannon</a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">, his ideological mentor and former chief strategist, in just eight words: “Let’s go screw
up One Belt One Road”. The West’s deeply destabilising Africa policy – of simultaneously creating the conditions for armed groups to thrive whilst offering protection against them – goes some way towards realising this ambitious goal. Removing Gaddafi was
just the first step.</span></p>
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