Into Africa

[don]

while the sequestration world turns . . .

[GRG55]

Re: Into Africa

while the sequestration world turns . . .

They seem to have missed the significant oil finds offshore Ghana, and the important natural gas production in the Nile Delta basin of Egypt (2 operating LNG export plants on the Med coast in that country).

Also find it interesting that they cut the map off to exclude Somalia? Maybe Africom doesn't want us to be reminded of that mess??

[don]

Re: Into Africa

They seem to have missed the significant oil finds offshore Ghana, and the important natural gas production in the Nile Delta basin of Egypt (2 operating LNG export plants on the Med coast in that country).

Also find it interesting that they cut the map off to exclude Somalia? Maybe Africom doesn't want us to be reminded of that mess??

Additions noted!

('tulipers to the rescue)

[wayiwalk]

Re: Into Africa

I find the new cooperative presence alongside/near the French interesting. You don't hear as many insults thrown at the french ("cheese-eating surrender monkeys") these days in the media....

[don]

Re: Into Africa

I find the new cooperative presence alongside/near the French interesting. You don't hear as many insults thrown at the french ("cheese-eating surrender monkeys") these days in the media....

Dog & Pony show for the sheeple. When "Freedom Fries" were hot to go in Congress, the French were in joint Afghan training with the US. (of course I'm not suggesting our Congressmen knew the difference )

[GRG55]

Re: Into Africa

Dog & Pony show for the sheeple. When "Freedom Fries" were hot to go in Congress, the French were in joint Afghan training with the US. (of course I'm not suggesting our Congressmen knew the difference )

That's the usual nationalist reflection of the world power of the moment isn't it..."The rest of the world revolves around us and could do well to follow our example..."

That infamous quote attributed to Prime Minister Henry John Temple, Lord Palmerston seems motivated by the same nationalist attitudes in England during the height of its empire. In a speech to Parliament in 1848 he said: "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow."

But all good things eventually come to an end:

" Jasper Ridley says in The Prime Ministers that Palmerston worked standing up partly to keep himself awake during his exceedingly long working day. The desk reveals a tall man, and seems to speak of power in itself. But as Palmerston's career came towards its end, the sense of power which the British electorate so enjoyed was beginning to wane. Between 1863 and 1864 Palmerston was humiliated in a dispute over the north European Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. Christian of Denmark proposed the incorporation of these Duchies, already under Danish jurisdiction, into the Danish state. He was opposed in this by the Prussian chancellor Bismarck, who wanted the Duchies for Prussia. Palmerston promised to support Denmark against Bismarck, and assumed, as in happier days gone by, that the threat would be enough. Bismarck contemptuously dismissed Palmerston's posturing and invaded the Duchies in 1864. Palmerston quickly realised there was nothing he could do. When the call for help came from Denmark, Palmerston had to refuse it."

[don]

Re: Into Africa

Great Powers act like Great Powers. Time to grow up and smell the roses . . . and cordite.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Into Africa

They seem to have missed the significant oil finds offshore Ghana, and the important natural gas production in the Nile Delta basin of Egypt (2 operating LNG export plants on the Med coast in that country).

Also find it interesting that they cut the map off to exclude Somalia? Maybe Africom doesn't want us to be reminded of that mess??

Djibouti is like Grand Central Station for military operations in the region.

The silly public and politically motivated chase for Kony in Uganda/Congo.

NO mention of how the "easy" regime change in Libya directly led to the quick collapse of Mali after the considerable capacity building efforts there were wasted. The smuggling routes are backwards. How else and where else did the Tauregs get so much weaponry other than Libya's Yugoslavia sized arsenal?

No Equitorial Guinea(energy)

No Angola(Energy)

Half jokingly, maybe we'll see a return to African colonialism 2.0.

Europe gets Algerian/Libyan oil.

North America/South America get Equitorial Guinean/Nigerian/Angolan oil.

China gets whatever it can strip mine from the rest of the carcass.

I'm not seeing much of a pattern yet, but I do know there's a lot of projects/hiring on the private contracting side of the house in Africa at the moment, specifically around former Somalia.

Not enough to offset the shrink in Iraq/Afghanistan, but a clear growth market.

Africa and Myanmar sound like the next "opportunities".

Africa is the test bed for the first "regionally aligned" brigade for the US Army as part of the recently created AFRICOM command:
http://www.army.mil/article/96824/_D...ICOM_missions/

[GRG55]

Re: Into Africa

Great Powers act like Great Powers. Time to grow up and smell the roses . . . and cordite.

I have the impression that neither the pilots nor the targets smell anything now...

[don]

Re: Into Africa

I have the impression that neither the pilots nor the targets smell anything now...

Targeted from the Rose Garden, I presume.

[GRG55]

Re: Into Africa

Targeted from the Rose Garden, I presume.

Late Night Afghanacam...