View Full Version : U.S. Africa Command Trims Its Aspirations
BMT (RIP)
06-01-2008, 04:02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/31/AR2008053102055.html?wpisrc=newsletter
BMT
"I think in some respects we probably didn't do as good a job as we should have when we rolled out Africom," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said recently, adding that "I wasn't there" when the command was conceived by his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and approved by President Bush.
Nice Heisman, Mr. Secretary. Welcome to the wonderful world of the DOD, where sacking up and taking responsibility for projects started long before your watch, even those you don't like or personally support, is the norm. Quit whining, take charge and stop pointing fingers like a political wuss. You're in charge of the US military for God's sake--set the example.
3SoldierDad
06-01-2008, 13:13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/31/AR2008053102055.html?wpisrc=newsletter
BMT
I find it fascinating that the place that needs the most help on the planet - Africa; says, "No Thanks - We don't want you." Africa is such a sink hole...what an awful pity. Why help folks when they refuse to help themselves? Who said beggars can't be choosey? Africa the land of the finicky paupers. Good riddance.
FYI - for good or ill - Using the military for economic development is the wave of the future. The best way to prevent terrorists is to nip it in the bud and to make sure people have the ability to work without fear and to have some semblance of law and order. Otherwise, every effort to help folks is an exercise in vanity. It has to start with security. It is the foundation for everything.
In this new small world everyone's problems are everyone's problems - Where everyone in the world is our neighbor. If Africa won't let us help them help themselves to be safe, secure, and free - then they have no moral high ground to shake their fist at America for being indifferent to their problems. Sorry, "Homey don't play that..."
There is a reason they are poor and miserable - They are proud, too proud to accept the help they need - which is America's stick against their criminal gangs.
I feel sorry for Africa, but not as sorry as I used to feel.
It's a darn shame; it really is...
U.S. Africa Command Trims Its Aspirations
Nations Loath to Host Force; Aid Groups Resisted Military Plan to Take On Relief Work
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 1, 2008
The U.S. Africa Command, designed to boost America's image and prevent terrorist inroads on the continent, has scaled back its ambitions after African governments refused to host it and aid groups protested plans to expand the military's role in economic development in the region.
Africom, due to begin operations Oct. 1, will now be based for the foreseeable future in Stuttgart, Germany, with five smaller regional offices planned for the continent on hold while the military searches for places to put them.
Nonmilitary jobs, created within Africom to highlight new cooperation between the Pentagon and the State Department, have been hard to fill and will initially total fewer than 50 of 1,300 headquarters personnel. Plans to broaden the military's more traditional overseas training and liaison responsibilities to include development and relief tasks were curbed after U.S.-funded aid groups sharply objected to working alongside troops.
"I think in some respects we probably didn't do as good a job as we should have when we rolled out Africom," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said recently, adding that "I wasn't there" when the command was conceived by his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and approved by President Bush.
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Three Soldier Dad...Chuck
I find it fascinating that the place that needs the most help on the planet - Africa; says, "No Thanks - We don't want you." Africa is such a sink hole...what an awful pity. Why help folks when they refuse to help themselves? Who said beggars can't be choosey? Africa the land of the finicky paupers. Good riddance.
FYI - for good or ill - Using the military for economic development is the wave of the future. The best way to prevent terrorists is to nip it in the bud and to make sure people have the ability to work without fear and to have some semblance of law and order. Otherwise, every effort to help folks is an exercise in vanity. It has to start with security. It is the foundation for everything.
In this new small world everyone's problems are everyone's problems - Where everyone in the world is our neighbor. If Africa won't let us help them help themselves to be safe, secure, and free - then they have no moral high ground to shake their fist at America for being indifferent to their problems. Sorry, "Homey don't play that..."
There is a reason they are poor and miserable - They are proud, too proud to accept the help they need - which is America's stick against their criminal gangs.
I feel sorry for Africa, but not as sorry as I used to feel.
It's a darn shame; it really is...
Three Soldier Dad...ChuckChina is investing heavily in Africa!;)
Stay safe.
Jack Moroney (RIP)
06-02-2008, 14:16
FYI - for good or ill - Using the military for economic development is the wave of the future.
Only if you want a military that is unable to perform its functions as an element of national power.
3SoldierDad
06-02-2008, 16:49
3SD says --- "FYI - for good or ill - Using the military for economic development is the wave of the future."Only if you want a military that is unable to perform its functions as an element of national power.
Understood. I did say for good or for ill. A good part of COIN is around delivering vital services to the people - it's hearts and minds via people's bellies, schools, and roofs. Whether we like it or not we are and will do a lot of nation building in the future. I'm not saying it is good; I am saying it is becoming a reality. "Relieving people's needs" does appear to be working in Iraq. At the end of the day, with the exception of medics, few soldiers get these skills as a part of their original MOS.
Yes, it is a tremendous strain on our ability and readiness to make war.
Three Soldier Dad...Chuck
Jack Moroney (RIP)
06-02-2008, 18:58
A good part of COIN is around delivering vital services to the people - it's hearts and minds via people's bellies, schools, and roofs.
The military's role in COIN is to provide the stability for the government provided programs for bellies, schools, and roofs. It is the host nation government that is the one that must have the credibility; they are the ones that have to resolve the problems that feed the insurgency. The military role is to suppress the insurgents and keep the pressure off the government so that the civil actions can succeed. COIN is an interagency/interdisciplinary effort and if the military is to provide the services that the government cannot then the effort is doomed to failure.
3SoldierDad
06-02-2008, 20:49
The military's role in COIN is to provide the stability for the government provided programs for bellies, schools, and roofs. It is the host nation government that is the one that must have the credibility; they are the ones that have to resolve the problems that feed the insurgency. The military role is to suppress the insurgents and keep the pressure off the government so that the civil actions can succeed. COIN is an interagency/interdisciplinary effort and if the military is to provide the services that the government cannot then the effort is doomed to failure.
I'm reading Michael Yon's Moment of Truth in Iraq. According to Yon, our soldiers have been used around Iraq, especially in the Anbar Province, for everything from helping to get food distribution up and going, reconstructing schools and hospitals, getting the utilities up - power and water, organizing trash clean-up, organizing medical care, etc, etc.....Point was there was no government (working at least). The military's leadership provided a huge example to the Sunnis that the Americans were indeed liberators as well as it provided a big incentive for them to join the coalition in taking the fight to Al Qaeda and other terrorists.
We are in agreement: the military is for security and killing the enemy - And, training others to do the same. What we are seeing in Iraq is that General Petraeus is fighting for and winning the hearts of the Iraqis in demonstrating that our soldiers know how to kill the enemy and they know how to get a city full of chaos up and running again. This has demonstrated itself to be a huge contrast to the insurgents who can only threaten, bully and intimidate through violence.
Yon would say, that psychology is now the most important weapon in America's military arsenal. The surge worked because the U.S. Soldier in Iraq is truly a lethal warrior; but, more...
Michael Yon writes...But Iraqis discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic or a school or a neighborhood. They learned the American soldier is not only the most dangerous man in the world, but the best man, too.
A lethal, but good hearted person.
We are winning the war because our soldiers are winning the people.
Three Soldier Dad...Chuck
According to Yon, our soldiers have been used around Iraq, especially in the Anbar Province, for everything from helping to get food distribution up and going, reconstructing schools and hospitals, getting the utilities up - power and water, organizing trash clean-up, organizing medical care, etc, etc.....
Which is a stop-gap solution. The endstate that proves success in COIN has cops maintaining law and order and the government performing the functions listed above.
Jack Moroney (RIP)
06-03-2008, 05:33
We are winning the war because our soldiers are winning the people.
Three Soldier Dad...Chuck
Winning the hearts and minds has always been a tennet of COIN, however while it is critical that our troops do nothing stupid to drive the non-committed into the arms of the insurgents it is even more important that the people feel that their government has won their hearts and minds. When we leave any COIN environment it is more important that the hearts and minds, and hence loyatly, is to their government and not to us. Remember when American troops are deployed in COIN/FID missions it is a the behest of the host nation government and to that extent our ROE must support the vision of that government and not ours. There are many on this board who have built schools and carried out Civil Projects, but these are collateral activities and not missions. We do what we have to do to make things happen but we are first and foremost warriors and teachers with a variety of tools in our tool box that will allow us a foot in the door to gain support of the folks with which were are immersed. This is not a one way street, we also obtain support from them which is not a topic for discussion on this board. The reason why the problems in Iraq have taken so long to resolve, and normally do in any COIN, is that the government in power(and remember it has not been in power long and even at that it is tenuous) has problems in meeting the expectations of its citizens. The rationale for why it is a country have become at odds with divergent groups who are no longer able to identify where they fit in society as members of their nation state. Iraq, like Africa, has the problem of tribes and tribal loyalties compounded with Islamic beliefs where the mosque and the state are in different states of flux depending on the sect. In this situation we are a little more than normally challenged in that the more fundamental the muslim the more he sees us as an infidel and we will never win over his heart and mind, nor should we try to. We need to make sure that clash within muslim cultures is not in further inflamed by the actions of our troops on the ground so to allow competing muslim beliefs to find a common ground for unity and maintaining the integrity of a nation. You cannot "win the war" in any COIN by military means alone and in fact if the military is playing other than a supporting role to the other non-military elements then you will never win an insurgency. I would suggest that we may be winning the military battles but until the government of Iraq can resolve the multiple problems splitting the country the war will not be won but will move back and forth between various phases of insurgencies as situation demands.