Sudan: It’s Starting

President Bush announced formation of a Pentagon African Command yesterday. This has been under discussion for some time now.

I am somewhat fluent in Pentagonese, an offshoot of Orwellian dialect that is spoken around the world, in all languages. According to the Boston Globe,

Bush’s decision was the culmination of a long debate that gained momentum as Washington grew more concerned about Islamist militancy in parts of Africa and more attracted by the potential of the continent’s natural resources.

First, you can ignore the part about “Islamic militancy”. Islam is just the enemy of the day. If this was 1966 or 1986, Pentagon would be concerned about Russian influence and local communists. It wasn’t real then, isn’t now. That part is just strategic cover.

The “potential of the continent’s natural resources” is real, however. There are many natural resources on the continent of Africa. Which ones could be of concern? Is it South African diamonds? West African Chocolate? Ethiopian coffee? Sudanese oil?

Yes, it’s oil, in significant part, Sudan, specifically the province of Darfur. As mentioned in an earlier post, there are two things in Africa drawing Pentagon attention: oil, and the presence of China.

U.S. establishment of an African command can only mean that there will soon be a U.S. troop presence. NPR yesterday, submissive as always, uncritically repeated the Pentagon line that the reason for the new command was to help “stabilize” African governments. Once again, it helps to speak Pentagonese –to “stabilize” means to “destabilize”.

It helps in translation to understand that back in 1948 when they changed the name from “War Department” to “Defense Department” that it only meant that we were going to be at war a lot, and that for each act of aggression we committed, we were going to claim self defense. When they hear that the US is coming on on a stabilization mission, like Iraq, African nations would be wise to duck and cover.