There is a line put out by AFRICOM that the original search for an African headquarters led to a terrible misunderstanding, on the part of African Governments, as to AFRICOM's intentions. And to clarify, there will be no bases and no forces. This line has been repeated endlessly over the past six months.
And it's come up again. During Condoleezza Rice's visit to Libya she reported that Colonel Qadhafi expressed
"concerns about what the United States was doing with AFRICOM, were we looking to military bases on the African continent, were we looking to a large military presence."
Sounding somewhat exasperated, Rice said she told Qadhafi
"that we clearly weren't getting through about what we meant for AFRICOM; that this was to be -- to help Africans help themselves in peacekeeping, in counterterrorism work. We were able to clear up misunderstandings of that kind."
Three points.
- Africans don't get it because they don't believe it.
- No bases is not true. The AFRICOM position is no bases for the moment.
- Help developing peacekeeping forces is much needed, but counterterrorism? Surely this is best handled by intelligence, law and order, and justice?
