David Axe writes in, “War Is Boring: Obama’s War Strategy Evolved Version of Bush’s“, that Africa has been “a neglected backwater in Pentagon planning.” A public relations pitch for U.S. military-enforced “social engineering” in Africa may be news but “Human Terrain System” is an extension of the same aged U.S. policy ladder planted decades ago atop the remains of potential resistance; anticipating reports on Viagra shipments arriving in the DRC courtesy U.S. Africa Command.
How we fuel Africa’s bloodiest war
Johann Hari, The Independent, 30 October 2008
What is rarely mentioned is the great global heist of Congo’s resources
The deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe is starting again – and you are almost certainly carrying a blood-soaked chunk of the slaughter in your pocket. When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with 5.4 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a “tribal conflict” in “the Heart of Darkness”. It isn’t. The United Nations investigation found it was a war led by “armies of business” to seize the metals that make our 21st-century society zing and bling. The war in Congo is a war about you.People throw stones at UN peacekeepers patrolling on a road in Kibati, about 16 miles north of Goma
The Israeli Connection
Whom Israel Arms and Why
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
pp. 55-56
When we look at the record carefully, we discover that Israel has played a continuous role for twenty-five years in keeping Zaire under Western control and under Mobutu’s. Israeli involvement dates back to the early 1960s, when Zaire was still the newly independent Congo. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were first established in 1962, and in December 1963, President Joseph Kasavubu visited Israel. Israel started by training Congolese paratroopers (Dodenhoff, 1969). “First, early in 1963, Israeli officers were dispatched to the Congo…In August 1963 and again in November, Congolese units totaling about 250 men came to Israel. The first group was joined by the then Army Commander, General Joseph Mobutu…., who along with his soldiers won his parachute wings in Israel. At the end of their course, 45 of the soldiers stayed on for advanced training.” (Laufer, 1967, p. 171.)
In 1964, Israel delivered the first tanks, ten obsolete M-4 Sherman models. As of 1969, the Democratic Republic of the Congo had enjoyed “technical assistance and military training” from France, West Germany, Italy, Denmark, Canada, and Israel. Taiwan offered a technical-assistance program (McDonald et al., 1971). A parachute-training center was operated with the help of Israeli instructors. In 1969, Israeli advisers started training the First Paracommando Battalion, an elite unit in Mobutu’s army. When an agreement on military cooperation was signed between the two countries on September 8, 1971, the foreign minister of the Congo said that it was only a formalization of activities that had gone on over the previous eight years, and credited Israel with training the elite of the Congolese army. The Israeli involvement in the Congo in the 1960s has been described as “one of the best dividends from this CIA investment” of financing Israeli activities in Africa (Evans and Novak, 1977, p. A15), and it was fully coordinated with U.S. covert operations.
You must be logged in to post a comment.