\t18 d\u00e9cembre 2007 En f\u00e9vrier 2007, le Pentagone a d\u00e9cid\u00e9 la cr\u00e9ation d’un nouveau commandement r\u00e9gional, pour l’Afrique, AFRICOM (African Command). On a d\u00e9j\u00e0 parl\u00e9, le 11 octobre 2007<\/a>, de ce nouveau commandement, dans le contexte des nouveaux conflits engendr\u00e9s par la crise climatique. Nous nous attachons aujourd’hui aux aspects plus sp\u00e9cifiques de ce commandement, tant d’un point bureaucratique que politique, tant d’un point de vue interne au Pentagone que du point de vue politique des relations des USA avec l’Europe.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tL’excellent auteur, dit Dr. Werther<\/a>, a publi\u00e9, il y a trois jours<\/a>, sur Antiwar.com<\/em>, un commentaire acide sur la cr\u00e9ation d’AFRICOM. Il critique les conditions de cr\u00e9ation de cet organisme, ses buts, la latitude qui est ainsi donn\u00e9e au Pentagone de cr\u00e9er une ramification bureaucratique de plus \u00e0 rajouter au formidable appareil bureaucratique du complexe militaro-industriel.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abAmid such a blur of perfidy, major events that portend disaster in the future can slip by with barely a notice by the media, by Congress, or by the public at large. For example, does one voter in a hundred know that the Department of Defense has quietly activated a new regional military command? Just type in the acronym AFRICOM into a search box, and the reader will find a DOD website that presents the new United States Africa Command, in the same boosterish manner that Microsoft rolls out a new operating platform.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbAccording to the site, U.S. Africa Command will better enable the Department of Defense and other elements of the U.S. government to work in concert and with partners to achieve a more stable environment in which political and economic growth can take place. U.S. Africa Command is consolidating the efforts of three existing headquarters commands into one that is focused solely on Africa and helping to coordinate US government contributions on the continent.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbIn other words, more meddling, more fishing in troubled waters, more displacement of traditional diplomacy with militarized shaping of the environment, more armed, buzz-cut boy scouts playing roughly the same role Graham Greene’s Quiet American played in Southeast Asia. Oh, yes, and oil in the Gulf of Guinea.<\/em> []<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbAll government bureaucracies, if allowed to fester, metastasize like a malignant cancer cell. DOD, having been given extraordinarily indulgent latitude by a somnolent Congress, has metastasized more than the norm. AFRICOM is yet another venue for general officer billets, staff jobs, and proconsular pretensions. Once created, the bureaucratic imperative becomes paramount. The collapse of the Warsaw Pact nearly two decades ago did not lead to the dissolution of NATO. AFRICOM, once created, will be immortal.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbAFRICOM also represents a God-sent opportunity for both our major political parties to find new worlds to conquer. The GOP, being a subsidiary of Big Oil, is fairly licking its chops at West African oil, although how a bunch of armed social workers would stabilize a basket case like Nigeria is not clear, given the unfortunate precedent of Somalia.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tUn aspect plus myst\u00e9rieux de AFRICOM concerne sa structure bureaucratique, sa localisation g\u00e9ographique et les influences dominantes qui s’y exercent (s’y exerceront), alors que le commandement est en formation entre la date officielle du d\u00e9but de son existence (1er octobre 2007) et la date officielle de son activation (1er octobre 2008). L’int\u00e9r\u00eat pour nous est que ce commandement US pour l’Afrique est pour l’instant install\u00e9 au coeur de l’Europe, en Allemagne. Dans le m\u00eame texte d\u00e9j\u00e0 signal\u00e9 du 11 octobre 2007<\/a>, nous notions qu’il n’y avait quasiment aucun pays africain int\u00e9ress\u00e9 pour accueillir ce commandement US et qu’il existait donc la possibilit\u00e9 s\u00e9rieuse qu’il reste localis\u00e9 en Europe. De r\u00e9centes indications publi\u00e9es d’une fa\u00e7on anodines permettent de mieux pr\u00e9ciser cet aspect du probl\u00e8me.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n