WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2007-02-25 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
The Monitor (Kampala)
OPINION
February 23, 2007
Posted to the web February 22, 2007
Angelo Izama
As I watched the Parliament endorse the sending of Ugandan troops to Somalia from the public gallery, I found it rather strange that none of the people’s representatives bothered to debate the Ugandan-American alliance considering that this is basically a US-funded mission.
Instead, many MPs who took to the floor to speak in support of Uganda’s intervention painted a picture of a revolutionary obligation the country had to help Somalia to its feet.
In a way here is a subject worth debating; the convergence between US defence policy since 9/11 and Uganda’s historical meddling in the affairs of its neighbors.
While many others will have their say on the pros and cons of this situation, I would like to point out one particular area I hope MPs will find worth debating. US President George Bush announced this month that he had approved a US Africa Command. This huge base of operations catering to America’s security needs will be located somewhere on the continent.
According to President Bush, the US government will “work closely with our African partners to determine an appropriate location for the new command”. While this consultation continues the Africa Command (Africom) will move out of Stuttgart, Germany which is the home of the US European Command.
The creation of Africom had long been rumoured and signifies how Africa has moved up the US agenda. In any case, Africom will operate against America’s perceived threats much in the way that the Somalia mission has been put on the table by relying on regional allies.
In its four yearly review of American security challenges published in February last year, the US Department of Defence (DoD) recommended that America decentralise its response to the “long war” on terror. It is worth observing that Uganda, long an ally of America in the region, should stand a fair chance of being the location for AFRICOM for a variety of reasons. Let us focus on a few that are national in character and have to do with the future of Uganda’s security in the Great Lakes Region.
In the past 18 years Uganda has routinely intervened through its military and intelligence services in Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and Sudan. In the process its actions have affected the status quo in these countries.
A new government is in place in Rwanda headed by our former head of military intelligence, Gen. Paul Kagame. In Burundi, a unity government has emerged through a Ugandan brokered peace process. The President of Burundi looks to Kampala as an ally. In Sudan, an on-going peace process, which may ultimately see an independent black South Sudan, is taking place.
Uganda again has fought alongside the Sudan People’s Liberation Army to arrive at this point. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and its allies helped create a new state headed by a former child soldier in Uganda- Joseph Kabila.
Regardless of the inspiration behind these adventures they have bred both friends and enemies has have been demonstrated by the Kisangani clashes between Ugandan and Rwandan troops.
Today, Uganda is ringed by potential security threats that will probably see the scaling up of her military expenditure for years to come. One of the primary ways in which a Uganda-based Africom will affect the country’s security is by potentially pacifying these threats and amplifying the areas of cooperation between Uganda and her neighbours.
It also represents significant advantages for the American government’s strategy of using allies to meet its security challenges. A glance at the map of Africa shows sub-Saharan Africa to be one of the most volatile areas in Africa.
West African states have found an answer in Ecomog in dealing with emerging security challenges while the south the continent has the advantage of South Africa’s large economy and military capabilities. Countries in the horn of Africa have received attention out of Djibouti, which is the headquarters of the Horn of Africa (JTF-HOA), a regional command of the US army. Besides North Africa including Egypt have traditionally been treated differently.
It is the cluster of states in the Great Lakes which remains vulnerable and where Uganda is the main ally of the US. One could add that a major US policy of regime change in Sudan directly involves Uganda and this alone I would argue is enough to locate Africom here.
Relevant Links
East Africa
Uganda
United States, Canada and Africa
Arms and Military Affairs
There, of course, will be other considerations and scenarios like how Africom could affect Uganda’s internal democracy. These are issues, which US Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, who is handling the setting up of Africom will have to carefully consider.
Despite her track record of pan-African adventurism abroad, Uganda has questionable democratic credentials complicated today by a fracturing of state power amidst an unwieldy succession process.
Somalia offers a platform to consider the future of US-Uganda relations . I request Chief of Defence Forces, Aronda Nyakairima (MP) to introduce to the House the question of locating an entire continental command in Uganda.
Source: All Africa
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200702221041.htm…br>
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