seems like january is a good month for blogging. did anyone bother to catch the state of the union address by President Bush, last night? well I happened to and the pre and post play commentary. well, realising that most of what he was going to say on Iraq and the economy would be nothing new, I tuned in to his besides-Iraq-Afghanistan-Iran foreign policy commentary - which was not much.
Considering his proposed trip to the African continent, I am surprised he did not mention anything about USAFRICOM, which would provide and American military presence in the African continent in order to provide stability and peace. However, when he did talk about Africa - there was NO mention of this program whatsoever. Besides his weak declaration that there is indeed a genocide occurring in Darfur, the rest focused on the usual Africa is a bastion of poverty, disease, and pestilence that needs our help. But it seemed that AFRICOM, which has been rejected by nearly every African country besides Liberia (please correct me if I am wrong), should feature prominently. I wonder why. It seems like USAFRICOM is more of a front to protect the US's "vital interests" (cough...oil...cough) rather than promote stability.
4 comments:
-
I haven't really paid much attention to this US African command thing...maybe I should. There might just be more to it than protecting US interests or African stability. Thanks for dropping by my blog. I will be here a lot. I like the style
-
my dear, even though bush II was not talking about africom, the US embassy's military attache to Nigeria was under the hot lights before members of Nigeria's national assembly.
I don't think he convinced them, nor average Nigerians that AFRICOM's intentions are entirely pure. However, as is the case with many other things involving Nigeria and other African countries, the people are relatively powerless to stop things they do not agree with. All we can do is work towards improving our nation and limit the influence of those who do not have our interests at heart.
Nice post, my sista. I am linking one of your old posts for a rejoinder that will be up in a few hours at me blog.
-
@guerreiranigeriana - hmm, i've been slacking - I have not kept up-to-date on sirleaf-johnson. i guess i was more impressed with her rise to fame as the first female African president. But I guess another aspect of feminism is that women are just as likely as men to be horrible leaders - see former house of reps speaker P. Etteh.
@ababoypart2 - enjoying ur blog too - just added u to my blogroll. hopefully there will be no need to pay attention to AFRICOM. i am hoping that the idea will disappear with the end of the Bush II administration.
@solomonsydelle - please tell me more about the US Embassy military attache in Naija - I honestly wasnt aware that there was one. I hope that Yar-adua won't cave under Bush's pressure to admit AFRICOM in naija.
in regards to the rejoinder - i may in the future write something about my thoughts on polygamy....possibly more towards family planning.
i think liberia and i had heard some talks of i think gambia also somewhat open to the idea...i have to check my blog on myspace where i wrote about this...i've never liked sirleaf-johnson and think any african leader in support of this us military presence on the continent should be quickly removed from power...curious that the fool left that bit of info out of his stupid speech...wonder why he won't visit naija?...hehe...great post!...