The Growing Importance Of AFRICOM

James Jay Carafano, National Interest: Why the United States Needs AFRICOM

Terrorist threats have mushroomed across swaths of Africa.

Africa is a continent suffused with problems and possibilities. The U.S. military footprint there ought to be smaller, not bigger. And that's precisely why we need the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). Done right, AFRICOM can help the next president keep the American military role in regional affairs appropriately scoped.

My colleague Nile Gardiner and I first made the case for standing up Africa Command in 2003.

Four years later, the Bush administration did just that. And we’ve been periodically savaged by one critic or another ever since. Sometimes we’re trashed as neocon puppet-masters. Sometimes, we’re depicted as neocolonialists, myopically focused on "resource extraction and homeland security far above and to the detriment of the priorities of the countries of Africa."

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Multiple wars and conflicts. The rise of terror groups and their safe havens. Many of the world's future conflicts will be in Africa, and the growing importance of AFRICOM is a sad indication of this reality.