Attention to Africa: Be Careful What You Wish For Posted by Heather Hurlburt

This piece in Tuesday's Washington Post is a lovely bit of writing, even if it does draw too heavily on the "white man's burden" school of Africa reporting.  The substance of its coverage, focused on a unit of National Guard reserve Green Berets training Chadian soldiers, under the headline "US Pushes Anti-Terrorism in Africa," was, however, lacking in content and context.  Using the magic of the web, allow me to fill in some gaps.

1.  So, the US has just discovered a terrible terrorism threat in Africa?

For years now, Africa advocacy groups have been toying around with the theme that Africa presents ripe opportunities for terrorists, in hopes that the US would pay more attention.  Well, folks, my mother used to tell me about Saint Theresa, who cursed you by giving you what you thought you wanted -- and here we are.

According to the International Crisis Group, the highest threat of Islamist activity is actually in Mali, "star pupil of 1990s neo-liberal democratisation."  ICG (see links below) also says that the Salafist Brotherhood for Preaching and Combat was dramatically weakened by the raid described in the article.

In any case, what seems clear is that recognition of terrorism in Africa is not, in fact, leading to increased resources for government, health, education and other areas that will, in the long run, give people choices beyond joining terrorist groups and hunting gazelles and/or non-Muslims.   It's leading to more DoD programming with little regard for broader political consequences.  Oh well.

2.  And the military response is the best one?  Thank goodness the Pentagon is on the case.

Back in March, the International Crisis Group published a report on US anti-terrorism activities in Africa which had some rather pungent things to say about where there is a problem:

With the U.S. heavily committed in other parts of the world, however, Washington is unlikely to devote substantial non-military resources to the Sahel soon, even though Africa is slowly gaining recognition -- not least due to West Africa's oil -- as an area of strategic interest to the West. The resultant equation is laden with risks, including turning the small number of arrested clerics and militants into martyrs, thus giving ammunition to local anti-American or anti-Western figures who claim the PSI (and the proposed, expanded Trans-Saharan Counter Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) still under consideration in the U.S. government) is part of a larger plan to render Muslim populations servile; and cutting off smuggling networks that have become the economic lifeblood of Saharan peoples whose livestock was devastated by the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, without offering economic alternatives. To avoid creating the kinds of problems the PSI is meant to solve, it needs to be folded into a more balanced approach to the region, one also in which Europeans and Americans work more closely together.

3.  Of course, this will also promote democratic accountability, since that is so important to the Bush Administration.

One of the things I love about working with the military is that by and large you get very straightforward answers to questions.  Our Post reporter is clearly troubled by the implications of training a military whose job is to protect an embattled and autocratic government frm its irate fellow-citizens.  She notices that members of Chad's president's small ethnic group control everything and are "feared" by others.  She poses the question to a soldier and gets the following answer, much more straightforward than any comment you will get on the subject back home:

"It just makes sense. They're the president's guard, and so in this region, with all the coups and stuff, you'd want them the best trained," said Capt. Jason, the team leader.  U.S. officials said the battalion is based in N'Djamena to safeguard the government and prevent its vehicles from falling into the hands of regional commanders.

Res ipsa loquitor.  (**Thanks, Dan, for correcting my Latin spelling.)  But there's really no further comment on the old democracy vs. stability argument needed.

4.  And nothing like this has ever been tried before?

Here's where readers can test out their wonk skills.  What do ACRI and ACOTA stand for?  Which was an initiative of the Clinton Administration, and which of Bush 43?  What was the difference between them?

The Africa Crisis Response Initiative was a State Department-managed, DOD-supported program to train selected African militaries for peacekeeping and humanitarian missions, and promote Africans' ability to work together (basically, to build a peacekeeping capacity for circumstances in which the US and other Western nations would not send forces themselves).  This was a Clinton-era initiative in the wake of Rwanda.

In FY2004, the Bush Administration replaced this with Africa Contingency Operations Training Assistance, focused "on training trainers and providing programs tailored to individual country needs."

Obviously, peacekeeping and terrorist-hunting are not the same things.  But we do have a dismaying track record of Administrations trying out and then abandoning ideas for Africa, as if no one had ever thought of them before.  And then we wonder why our programs encounter difficulty in producing long-term change.

So we know that the trouble with the war on terror is that our allies can't just be Britain, Poland, and those plucky democrats in Georgia and Ukraine.   Now that Secretary Rumsfeld has shored u p our bases in Uzbekistan, and gotten the Kyrgyz to say that they didn't really mean what they said when the Russians and Chinese were in the room, can't we be a little more honest about where we can't avoid dealing with thugs, and a little more discriminating about which thugs we hug?

One is just left with the impression here that this Administration's policy is more like that wonderful board game Risk -- "terrorists here?  let's put some chips there" -- than an actual calculation of the sum total of US interests and how to maximize them.

The International Crisis Group report I linked to above has some good policy suggestions, among them doing more cooperative work with the Europeans in Africa.  At least that would give our soldiers some up-to-date maps of Chad.

(It's good to be back.  I'll have my midwest trip report soon...)

Comments

[libertarian soldier]

I have to disagree.
Bush 43 with PEPFR, MCA, anti-malaria and other programs is "leading to increased resources for government, health, education and other areas that will, in the long run, give people choices beyond joining terrorist groups and hunting gazelles and/or non-Muslims".
And the recent G8 summit saw even more resources. And there is substantial coordination on improving Amilitary U capabilities between the US, the EU, the UK, FR, the NL and others.
"With the U.S. heavily committed in other parts of the world, however, Washington is unlikely to devote substantial non-military resources to the Sahel soon, even though Africa is slowly gaining recognition -- not least due to West Africa's oil -- as an area of strategic interest to the West". Well, US military resources are the most heavily commited element of national power right now, and we are making it available, so I'm thinking their premise is false. Look at the non-military resources we have poured into Sudan, CDI, and the Mano River region. BTW, the hotbeds of terrorist activity are nowhere near "West African oil" which is in the Gulf of Guinea, although they are relatively near Algerian gas fields.
"...cutting off smuggling networks that have become the economic lifeblood of Saharan peoples whose livestock was devastated by the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, without offering economic alternatives?" Yes, we are indeed trying to interdict the terrorist superhighway running from Port Sudan to Nouakchott, where smuggling of things significantly more lethal than camels is occurring on a regular basis, just as we are trying to interdict smuggling routes for poor Yemenese fisherman and poor Afghan farmers.
3. Democratic accountability. This is the same government that is hosting a couple hundred thousand Sduanese refugees, fought numerous rebel groups--FARF, MDJT, ANR, ANR-T, and three factions of the MDD trying to bring some semblence of peace to Chad. Its also the only government that responded to the DRC's request for troops in 1998, brought peace to Equateur province, and then pulled out without insisting on diamond, gold or timber concessions. Its also the government who established a new standard for transparency of oil revenues by following the WB plan. Its also the government that after 4 years has taken greater responsibility for demining than Cambodia has after over a decade. And, of course, small is relative; the Zaghawa are much larger than the clans of the previous rulers Goukouni and Habre.
Being familar with ACRI and ACOTA (and ACRF, the predecessor of ACRI), I must say you present the facts selectively. ACRI was not open ended; it was a 5 year $100M program to train African peacekeepers and was executed to completion. However, it was flawed from inception as it had no aspect of establishing a self sustainment capability. Until, that is, The CHOD for Kenya told the USG he didn't want us to train his soldiers in peacekeeping, he wanted us to train his trainers so he could train his soldiers in peacekeeping. "Light Bulb" above Americans heads"! This became the "Kenyan model", forced onto DoS (and its blood sucking contractors who were really running the program and saw no need to change the gravy train) by DoD insistence on incorporating what we were then calling an anchor state. The Kenyan model was refined into what is now ACOTA by combining it with another succesful program (who's name escapes me) that provided $90M to T&E 7 battalions of West African Peacekeepers to Chapter VII standards to beef up UNAMSIL. So, to me it is not a question of "a dismaying track record of Administrations trying out and then abandoning ideas for Africa, as if no one had ever thought of them before". Rather, it is a continual engagement process modified by experience and inputs from the Africans themselves. Just as PSI was a pilot program, was successful (they did take down the GSPC guys) and is being expanded and modified into the TSCTI.
And if you think the Europeans have more up to date maps than we do on Africa, I have to tell you you are completely mistaken--at least concerning West, Central and East Africa, the areas I am familiar with because:
a. we have all there maps (and the Russian ones); b. we have more mapping capability than the rest of EU/NATO combined, and we are making a 65 CD digital mapping library of Africa (although our assets are overtasked elsewhere right now); c. except for some infrastructure in the South along the pipeline very little has changed in Chad; and d. you can get along fine with GPS, compass, pencil and paper in real deserts.
Sorry to be so long; a little sorry about being snarky (but not much) :)

[Dan Tompkins]

It's res ipsA loquitur. Thanks for an interesting column and for your overall good work.

Dan Tompkins

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