Bush: No new US bases in Africa

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

ACCRA (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that the United States has no plans to build new military bases in Africa, amid concerns on the continent about a new AFRICOM command now based in Germany.

"We do not contemplate adding new bases," Bush said, on the second-to-last stop of a five-country Africa swing, during a joint press conference with Ghana President John Kufuor.

"I know there's rumors in Ghana -- 'all Bush is coming to do is trying to convince you to put a big military base here.' That's baloney. Or as we say in Texas, 'that's bull,'" Bush said.

"That doesn't mean we won't develop some kind of office somewhere in Africa. We haven't made our minds up. This is a new concept," Bush explained, amid deep suspicion on the continent about the purpose of AFRICOM.

Some African critics have tied the project to the fact that, by 2015, Washington expects that 25 per cent of the oil it imports will come from the continent, essentially from the Gulf of Guinea.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080220/wl_afp/usafricamilitarybush_080220130153;_ylt=AoWfPE8.UtkKTsmRvJj7tYeQOrgF

[Tesha]

1. Well ain't that mighty white of him! (NT)

[CJCRANE]

2. He forgot the "read my lips" part n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

6. "Read my lips" was my first thought too...

[Javaman]

3. I guess we are building bases there. nt

[soothsayer]

15. LOTS of bases.

[flashl]

4. Maybe its the unoffical lily-pads?

Feb. 24, 2004
U.S. Military Shows Interest in Africa

ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press

DAKAR, Senegal - Top U.S. generals are touching down across Africa in unusual back-to-back trips, U.S. European Command confirmed Tuesday, part of a change in military planning as U.S. interest grows in African terror links and African oil.

Trips by two top European Command generals follow last week's similarly low-profile Africa visit by the U.S. commander in Europe, Marine Gen. James L. Jones.

The generals are leaders in U.S. military proposals to shift from Cold War-era troop buildups in western Europe to smaller concentrations closer to the world's trouble spots.

...

An increased focus on Africa comes amid a push by some in the United States - conservative think tanks in particular - to do more to secure alternatives to oil from the volatile Middle East.

West Africa supplies the United States with 15 percent of its oil. The U.S. National Intelligence Council has projected the figure will grow to 25 percent by 2015.

---

Ethiopian troops occupy Mogadishu
By Ann Talbot
30 December 2006

...

Officially, there are no US troops with the Ethiopian forces, although 100 US military personnel are involved in training the Ethiopian army. But the fact that the US embassy was one of the first objectives of the Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu suggests that either US personnel are involved in the Ethiopian advance or it is being conducted under extremely close US oversight. Emails leaked this summer indicate that there are private US security contractors working with the Ethiopians.

The Ethiopian invasion of Somalia seems to be the first fruit of a US reorganisation of its military in Africa.
In August it was announced that a Unified Africa Command would be formed for the first time. Until now, responsibility for military operations in Africa has been divided between the European Command, Pacific Command and Central Command.

Central Command, which deals with Iraq and the Middle East, has pioneered the practice of using relatively small forward bases that are manned mainly by special forces. It has a base in Dijbouti, the former French colony in the Horn of Africa, known as Combined Joint Task Force—Horn of Africa, with 1,500 personnel. This is the proposed model for future military interventions in Africa. A series of such bases will act as “lily-pads,” according to Stanley A. Weiss, writing in the International Herald Tribune.

[inMD]

10. So the alternative to oil...

in the "volatile middle east" (according to conservative think tanks) is oil in Africa.

How bout just alternatives to oil!!!!!! Wind, solar, geothermal.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Is Iraq in Africa?????????????????????

:rofl:

[dysfunctional press]

8. no, why?

:shrug:

[Alcibiades]

7. If he says no new bases, you know there will be new bases

What Mark Twain said:

Shall we? That is, shall we go on conferring our Civilization upon the peoples that sit in darkness, or shall we give those poor things a rest? Shall we bang right ahead in our old-time, loud, pious way, and commit the new century to the game; or shall we sober up and sit down and think it over first? Would it not be prudent to get our Civilization-tools together, and see how much stock is left on hand in the way of Glass Beads and Theology, and Maxim Guns and Hymn Books, and Trade-Gin and Torches of Progress and Enlightenment (patent adjustable ones, good to fire villages with, upon occasion), and balance the books, and arrive at the profit and loss, so that we may intelligently decide whether to continue the business or sell out the property and start a new Civilization Scheme on the proceeds?--"To the Person sitting in Darkness"

[Buns_of_Fire]

11. Except now they'll be called "offices."

"That doesn't mean we won't develop some kind of office somewhere in Africa. We haven't made our minds up. This is a new concept," Bush explained, amid deep suspicion on the continent about the purpose of AFRICOM.

[dysfunctional press]

9. not until/unless thay come up with some more sizeable oil deposits...

then we'll talk.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. Oil base?

[Azazel]

13. Wait a minnit. Doesn't Africa have diamonds and gold?

What is Bush waiting for? Is he some kind of wuss? :)

[Political Heretic]

17. OIL - large oil reserves

[dkofos]

14. Unless we find out you have OIL!!

[Political Heretic]

16. Bullshit, I read we were already in talks with...... dammit I can't remember which country...

...goes to look at a map. Liberia I think?

Wish I had a link..