AFRICOM was created for two main reasons, oil and China. I have documented where US officials have stated this at numerous places in this blog. For a more detailed discussion see Understanding AFRICOM: A Contextual Reading of Empire’s New Combatant Command Part I, Part II and Part III.
Kwesi Pratt, editor of the Insight newspaper in Ghana, was one of the few people who caught on to this very early. His question to President Bush regarding oil and Africa was rudely dismissed by Bush. In this century the West intends on taking 3 Cs out of Africa: Crude, China, and Capital.
Uganda People’s Defense Forces and U.S. Soldiers wait for supplies to be dropped from a Ugandan Air Force Mi-17 helicopter during Atlas Drop 11 at Drop Zone White near Olilim, northern Uganda, April 18, 2011. The US military was active in Northern Uganda and bordering countries long before President Obama announced he was sending Special Operations forces there in October 2011. AFRICOM and SOCOM (US Special Operations Command) plan to be there long after Kony and the LRA are a distant memory.
The LRA has been a scourge on Uganda for more than 20 years. When Uganda discovered oil prospects, the US became interested in the LRA. The military option to defeat Kony has been explored numerous times in the past, notably Operation North (1991), Operation Iron Fist (2002) and Operation Lightning Thunder (2008-2009). Each failed and led to massive reprisals against civilians.
The Acholi religious leaders, representing the regions and people who have suffered most from Kony and the LRA, point out that the only times things have gotten better is when there have been talks and negotiations.
Kony has no known political affiliations, he just likes war and terrorizing. Humanitarian rationalizations have always been the cloak of legitimacy for the ruthless extraction of African resources. We should recognize this by now.
Kony and the LRA operate across the borders in the territories of several countries that are of particular interest to the United States (partial lists of their resources in parentheses) South Sudan (oil, land, water, China) the DRC – Congo (oil, coltan, tin, tungsten, copper, gold, water, timber, China etc.) Uganda (oil, China, source of proxy soldiers, water, land, etc.) Burundi (uranium, rare earth, diamonds, cobalt, copper, land, water) CAR – Central African Republic (diamonds, uranium, timber, gold, oil). So Kony and the LRA are a very handy target indeed.
It would be excellent for everyone if Kony and the LRA are put out of business. IF (big IF) the US military can put Kony out of business, on its own, that would be a blessing. That is not the real reason the US is there, and the US will not be leaving when Kony is gone.
Museveni used protection from the LRA as a tool against the Acholi and other people of Northern Uganda, some call his methods genocide, they were certainly brutal and pervasive. It was not entirely inconvenient for him to have the LRA in business. The same is true for the United States. Kony and the LRA are very convenient, putting the US military exactly where they want to be.
Kony is a handy cover for the real reasons for US interest in the region, which are all about African resources.
You can see links to more information and documentation in these posts:
Uganda – Stepping On the Mission Creep Accelerator
If Uganda Has Oil It Must Need The Pentagon’s Democracy
or via this search: https://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/?s=lra
Soldiers of the 5th Brigade, 75th Division, California Army Reserve, stand in formation with soldiers from Rwanda and Uganda during exercise Natural Fire 11 in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
March 4, 2012 at 7:55 am
We just saw this on YouTube: The Plunder and Depopulation of Central Africa – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg6kPY7QC3M&feature=share. There are many parts of the speech here by Keith Harmon Snow that fully collaborate the motivations behind the chase for the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Thank you again for your efforts to bring out the truth about what is going on!
For Life, the Environment, and Social Justice!
Social Media Outreach
Pan-Africanist International – a grammar of Pan-Africanism and its manners of articulation.
E-mail: SocialMedia@panafricanistinternational.org
Website: http://www.panafricanistinternational.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/PanAfricanists
March 7, 2012 at 6:14 am
At least someone understands not everything that is painted picture perfect is infact PERFECT. another enemy made for benefits
March 8, 2012 at 2:44 am
I am disgusted by this. That viral kony video really had a lot of us believing we could make a difference, yet it was just propaganda. This is scary, our government is sick.
March 8, 2012 at 1:16 pm
OMG people are sooo ignorant lol forget the Kony #distraction\\ Read this for the real truth**
March 8, 2012 at 6:49 pm
KONY 2012
[Many thanks for this comment. I very much agree. I took the liberty of removing the link to the video, as I do not have sufficient regard for Invisible Children to give them a link. Those who may wish to view the video or the website it can find it easily with a search. – Xcroc]
KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.
OUR COMMENTS:
We are most grateful for the light this page continues to shed amidst the thick fog of war. But by all standards, this video is easily the cheapest take on the subject. It has the same smell of petrol we saw in Libya and in the Ivory Coast. Yet another R2P propaganda for war on Africa ostensibly dressed as humanitarian but targeted to secure uninterrupted oil supply to the US. “The #Kony stuff is all bleeding heart ignorance,” is the terse comment by Xcroc on this documentary that is wrong-headed promoting another US military adventure in Africa. There is a more elaborate response on his blog: https://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/why-the-us-is-chasing-kony-and-the-lra/. Kony is a handy cover for the real reasons for US interest in the region, which are all about African resources.
You can see links to more information and documentation in these posts:
Uganda – Stepping On the Mission Creep Accelerator
If Uganda Has Oil It Must Need The Pentagon’s Democracy
or via this search: https://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/?s=lra
The United States abstained from a vote last year calling on the United Nations to recognize the right to water as a fundamental human right. The resolution was presented to the UN General Assembly by the Bolivia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Pablo Solon. In his introductory speech he reminded the world about the significance of the vote:
PABLO SOLON: [translated] At the global level, approximately one out of every eight people do not have drinking water. In just one day, more than 200 million hours of the time used by women is spent collecting and transporting water for their homes. The lack of sanitation is even worse, because it affects 2.6 billion people, which represents 40 percent of the global population. According to the report of the World Health Organization and of UNICEF of 2009, which is titled “Diarrhoea: Why Children Are [Still] Dying and What We Can Do,” every day 24,000 children die in developing countries due to causes that can be prevented, such as diarrhea, which is caused by contaminated water. This means that a child dies every three-and-a-half seconds. One, two, three. As they say in my village, the time is now.” [See: In Historic Vote, UN Declares Water a Fundamental Human Right http://bit.ly/cXF844 ]
122 countries supported the resolution, and over forty countries abstained from voting, including the United States, Canada and several European and other industrialized countries. The US and Somalia are the only countries yet to ratify the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Why should anyone ready to kill in order to save lives, for the sake of humanity, worry about the fact that every child has the right to a name? Which right of the child are they objecting to? If they had done that much before this ridiculous and hypocritical propaganda and cynical psy-ops for war for oil, they would have been much more credible!
We of the Social Media Outreach of the Pan-Africanist International completely condemn this propaganda piece and do call upon all the good friends of Africa and our children to dismiss it with the contempt that it deserves!
Long Live Africa! Down with US Africa Command!
For Life, the Environment, and Social Justice!
Social Media Outreach
Pan-Africanist International – a grammar of Pan-Africanism and its manners of articulation.
E-mail: SocialMedia@panafricanistinternational.org
Website: http://www.panafricanistinternational.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/PanAfricanists
March 8, 2012 at 8:04 pm
I wish to express my greetings and thanks to all who are visiting, reading, and linking this post. The video and petition by Invisible Children is part of a disinformation campaign to militarize US relations with Central and East Africa, and gin up public support for a variety of military interventions, present and future.
[Added March 10 – When I called Kony2013 a part of a disinformation campaign, I did not mean to say that the video was a product of the US government. It appears more to be a coincidental independant contribution to US moves to militarize relationships with African countries. If any group I don’t know where Invisible Children get their money, although available documentation shows they spend it mostly on themselves.]
As to the video, I think the Sisters of Resistance provide relevant links:
It is wonderful to see the number of variety of African voices pushing back against Invisible Children’s disinformation campaign.
Ugandan Journalist Rosebell Kagumire has posted a video of her response to the film, and writes:
http://rosebellkagumire.com/2012/03/08/kony2012-my-response-to-invisible-childrens-campaign/
Teju Cole is most succinct on Twitter:
Last, the picture in the last two slides of an AFRICOM training presentation graphically demonstrate the imperial view, the same view promoted by Invisible Children. From my post The Crab’s Handshake – AFRICOM Partnering In Africa. The first slide is labeled Africans solving African problems. All the Africans are children. The military White Savior Industrial Complex is arrayed in formation before them asking if they have any questions.
CJTF-HOA last two slides
March 9, 2012 at 11:51 am
After supporting IC for a while now, I DO NOT doubt their intentions, but the US government using Kony as a distraction to get people on board for us being there is wrong.
March 9, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Where are the troops? They’ve only sent in advisors, not even into combat. When they start sending in troops, then I’ll believe this propaganda about propaganda.
March 9, 2012 at 6:22 pm
Only the deluded cannot believe that Kony and LRA are evil, especially so because they have no purpose other than madness. And yes, Museveni is also evil, but evil in the way that an organized crime boss is, in that he uses evil means to achieve peace and stability. So are you anti-Invisible Children people saying we shouldn’t try to rid the world of at least the greater evils? That’s absurd, not to mention, evil. Sorry that reality isn’t as pretty and perfect as you’d like it to be, but if we do nothing, ALL evil wins.
March 10, 2012 at 1:33 pm
America Humanitarian Imperialism in Uganda
Now the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) has got two bases in Uganda which claim to be promoting “regional stability.” But US military bases have been in place for one very specific reason – to protect US economic interests. In Uganda and South Sudan there are significant oil and natural gas resources. Uganda’s recently-discovered oil reserves may produce between 2.5 billion to 6 billion barrels of oil.
U.S. Army Sets Base in Kitgum plus an air base in Entebbe. Also, U.S. Special Forces have set up a base in Obo in the Central African Republic as part of their regional hunt for fighters from the Ugandan-born Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA is estimated to have only 200-300 fighters.
More important for the United States, the deployment offers an opportunity for U.S. Africa Command to further its goals in the region, including those in South Sudan and Somalia.
AFRICOM’s Objectives
Established in 2006 by the Bush administration and based in Stuttgart, Germany, AFRICOM is primarily intended to help African security forces build up their capabilities to handle regional security issues. To complete its mission, AFRICOM needs stable African partners with access to areas of instability. Having such a partner is especially important at a time when the international community and pan-African groups are calling for African-based initiatives to solve African problems. A committed political partner such as Uganda can legitimize and complement U.S. initiatives in Africa.
March 12, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Xcroc, you couldn’t have said it better! The US is moving into Afrika in a detailed way that is aimed at securing US interests where Afrika’s resources are concerned. This is the bottom line. In the case of Uganda, they are looking at gold, oil, timber, uranium and other prospects. Now that Gaddafi is out of the way, it is likely we’ll be seeing more overt US moves into the continent. It always pays to look beneath the veneer of the apparent. Unfortunately many well meaning folk will take this new move to promote searching out the new boogey man as a justified reason for sending in US forces.
Meanwhile a war has been waging in the DRC since the early 90’s in which over 6 million people have been killed (by some estimates). You’d think that the whole of military might will be applied to that area to “save those humans”…yet I imagine you and I and many of your readers will or probably be able to guess know why that particular situation has been allowed to fester. Thanks
March 15, 2012 at 9:31 pm
The key question is what effect expanded military action against the LRA will have, especially in terms of its impact on surrounding civilian populations. I’ve written a detailed analysis of this question, at the url below:
http://www.theafricanist.blogspot.co.nz/