Sunday, February 11, 2007

The Birth of Africom

US President GW Bush annnounced on Tuesday he had given approval for the new command, Africom, which will be based initially in Stuttgart, Germany, but later move to an African location yet to be determined.

See ComingAnarchy.com on The Birth of Africom plus this comment posted by lirelou Feb 8, 2007:
So, Africom has been spun out of Eucom, which had planning responsibility for Africa outside of Centcom's area prior to this. They'll waste a lot of money if they move to an African location. Back in the early 80's, when we were looking to base a single (SF) battalion in Africa, the only country who showed any real interest was Somalia, which was officially Marxist. Whoever decided to forego that offer showed wisdom and/or foresight. Note that what they are doing here is creating more planning staffs, but not more troops on the ground. (What increases are planned are targeted to the GWOT and OIF) More generals, more staffs, more paper, more pressure to "prove their worth" by getting pro-active. They could have passed the mission to Southcom and saved the money. Our defence dollars need to be spent more wisely.

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