[Peace-discuss] FW: [indict-nato] EUCOM/NATO Commander Plans Military Bases Throughout African Continent

[Marianne Brun]

----------
Von: Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff at yahoo.com>
Antworten an: indict-nato at yahoogroups.com
Datum: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 01:03:24 -0700 (PDT)
An: r_rozoff at yahoo.com
Betreff: [indict-nato] EUCOM/NATO Commander Plans Military Bases Throughout
African Continent

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=16102

[A History Of US Military Bases*]

Stars And Stripes
June 17, 2003

Transforming EUCOM, Part III:
Zeroing in on the African continent
By Jon R. Anderson

-?We don?t pay enough attention to Africa, but I think
we?re going to have to in the 21st century,? Marine
Gen. James L. Jones told Stars and Stripes recently.
Leader of the 109,000-strong U.S. European Command,
Jones? area of responsibility covers most of the
African continent.
-[E]UCOM officials have begun scouting potential
basing arrangements in places such as Tunisia and
Morocco....
-?Hopefully we?ll see more visits and more presence by
our American forces, and maybe even coalition forces
coming from the European theater...with regard to the
developments of not only the southern rim of the
Mediterranean, but sub-Saharan Africa as well,? Jones
said.
One likely candidate for that kind of presence could
be Mali in North Africa.
-[J]ones has said he would like to see more of the
Navy?s carrier fleets and Marine Expeditionary Units
patrolling the coast of Africa.
-Meanwhile ? unprecedented in recent years ? the Air
Force was planning war games in civil war-torn Algeria
.
-Morocco has already agreed to basing rights for cargo
aircraft, and ?we?re getting ready to start that
process in Algeria.?
Farther to the south, Martin said, the Air Force has
also established forward operating locations in Ghana,
Senagal and Gabon.




Terrorists attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner
in Kenya. Western tourists are kidnapped in Algeria.
Suicide bombers kill dozens in Morocco.

Africa is a hotbed of terrorist activity. And that?s
on top of civil wars currently in more than a dozen
countries across the continent.

Meanwhile, rampant poverty, ethnic strife and the
epidemic spread of AIDS ? which kills about 8,000
Africans every day ? has made it impossible for
regional leaders to stem the continental hemorrhaging.

?We don?t pay enough attention to Africa, but I think
we?re going to have to in the 21st century,? Marine
Gen. James L. Jones told Stars and Stripes recently.
Leader of the 109,000-strong U.S. European Command,
Jones? area of responsibility covers most of the
African continent.

Much of the attention on Jones? plans to reshape his
forces has centered on setting up bases in Eastern
Europe, but Jones also is looking south. EUCOM
officials have begun scouting potential basing
arrangements in places such as Tunisia and Morocco,
according to U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander Gen.
Gregory Martin.

?I am concerned about the large ungoverned areas of
Africa that are possibly melting pots for the
disenfranchised of the world, so to speak, the
terrorist breeding grounds,? Jones told congressional
leaders in late April.

?I believe that we?re going to have to engage more in
that theater, and part of the basing realignment and
proposals that we are coming up with will establish
some footprints at a very low cost,? Jones said.

Jones told Stripes he envisions using troops already
in Europe to rotate into bare-bones Forward Operating
Sites throughout the continent.

A good example may be the Marine Corps-led force now
operating in the Horn of Africa ? the only part of the
continent outside of the EUCOM map ? tasked with
hunting down terrorist cells where Africa meets the
Middle East.

?Hopefully we?ll see more visits and more presence by
our American forces, and maybe even coalition forces
coming from the European theater, to begin to stem the
tide of what is going to be, I think, an extremely
difficult story with regard to the developments of not
only the southern rim of the Mediterranean, but
sub-Saharan Africa as well,? Jones said.

One likely candidate for that kind of presence could
be Mali in North Africa. While Mali?s government is
staunchly pro-United States, the country is among the
10 poorest nations in the world.

U.S. intelligence believes terrorist groups have set
up camps and opened up supply lines through northern
Mali?s largely ungoverned desert wastelands along the
Algerian border, according to a top-level U.S.
military official.

?They have established lines of communication that
support operations in and out of the region,? said the
official. The no-man?s land is ?far enough off the
beaten path they can also conduct training camps
there,? he said.

?Those [terrorist] structures need to be eradicated,?
he said, but added that ?cannot be done with a bolt
out of the blue. We have to create the relationships
that determine how best to do the intelligence. That
doesn?t necessarily mean a permanent presence, but
frequent presence by the right people and then the
ability to mass and do something about it.?

In addition to exploring new basing possibilities,
Jones has said he would like to see more of the Navy?s
carrier fleets and Marine Expeditionary Units
patrolling the coast of Africa.

Traditionally, the Navy has tried to keep a carrier
battle group in the Mediterranean at all times. Iraq,
however, has pulled those assets into the Persian Gulf
more often than not in recent years.

Now with the U.S. Army in control of operations in
Iraq, Jones hopes to shift ships to potential trouble
spots outside of the Mediterranean.

More training

The Air Force and Army already are leaning south.

Both services have been stepping up exercises in
Morocco and Tunisia, for example.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vicenza, Italy,
conducted maneuvers in both countries recently before
jumping into Northern Iraq.

Meanwhile ? unprecedented in recent years ? the Air
Force was planning war games in civil war-torn Algeria
.

Involving C-130 Hercules and search-and-rescue crews,
the exercise was slated for May, ?but the Air Force
chief there is immersed in the hostage crisis so it?s
been postponed,? Martin told Stars and Stripes in May.

More than 30 Europeans were captured in a string of
abductions between February and April in Algeria. The
terrorists responsible for the kidnappings are
believed to be linked to al-Qaida, Algerian officials
said. Last month, The Associated Press reported that
17 of the hostages were freed in a battle that left
nine suspected hostage-takers dead.

Gen. Martin said Morocco has already agreed to basing
rights for cargo aircraft, and ?we?re getting ready to
start that process in Algeria.?

Farther to the south, Martin said, the Air Force has
also established forward operating locations in Ghana,
Senagal and Gabon.


*A history of military bases


U.S. bases in Eastern Europe would be a first for that
part of the world, but they?d be nothing new in
Africa.

Bob Work, a senior military analyst at the Center for
Strategic and Budgetary Assessment in Washington, DC.,
said the basing eras follow the course of the entire
U.S. history, including:

? The Continental Era ? 1775-1890: During this period
there were no overseas bases. The U.S. military was
focused on securing the continent. ?But by the end of
the Battle for Wounded Knee,? when cavalry forces
fought the last of the major campaigns against the
Native Americans, the United States ?was beginning to
look outward,? Work said.

? The 1st Expeditionary Era ? 1891-1950: The U.S
became a global power. The focus was on establishing
bases to support the Navy in the Pacific. Major bases
were established in the Philippines, Wake Island and
Guam. Even China hosted the 4th Marine Regiment.

? Nuclear Warfare Era ? 1950-1960: Bases such as
Wheelus in Libya sprung up, joining others in Tunisia,
Morocco and Turkey.

? Garrison Era ? 1960-1989: The key drive now was
containment of the Soviet Union, and Cold War basing
in Western Europe took root, with scores of Army and
Air Force garrisons. ?The U.S. military brought our
families to the frontier. It was extremely expensive,?
Work said. ?But it was a cost our allies were willing
to pay for.?

? 2nd Expeditionary Era ? 1989-present: Even as the
Cold War was ending, the United States was becoming
more prone to taking challenges with military might.
Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989 began a series
of major military campaigns that have continued every
year since, including two wars against Iraq, two air
campaigns against Yugoslavia, invasions of Haiti and
Afghanistan, and multiple peacekeeping missions in the
Balkans and elsewhere.

? Stars and Stripes


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