I'd kind of forgotten about the whole Africa Command thing. Been pretty
busy conducting genetic experiments on cats.

But today, this guy I knew got tapped to head off to Stuttgart to do the
forming, storming and norming bit for AFRICOM's standup in SEPT08. That
made me put down the cat, the needle and the Dummies Guide to Mad
Science and start a google search.

Most of the articles I found were pretty insular, but I did check out
Mr. Lin's, who works for the Peoples Liberation Army and Conglomeration.

Now, right off, I had to laugh. Mr. Lin uses a type of Overspeak familiar
to anyone who's listened to Great and Dear Leaders.

The U.S. "moves to step up military infiltration in Africa." Two buzz
words there. Guess which ones?

And he ends with "Therefore, AFRICOM facilitates the United States
advancing on the African continent, taking the control of the Eurasian
Continent and proceeding to take the helm of the entire globe."

Yes, Pangea, we mean to dominate you!!!

In between, though, you've got a pretty good blue print for a long
delayed entry by the U.S. into that tortured continent. Tortured, I'd
say, by past colonialism and current crappy government.

Now CHICOM INC, has had a pretty good run of things, in mainly western
Africa (the Merovingian Franks take care, like a Corleone, western
Africa and the Nejd Boys nibble across the Red Sea into Northern
Africa), but by and large, Africa is wide open.

The CHICOMS and the Franks are basically in Africa to extract. Not that
there's anything wrong with that. But I think that with a little
American ingenuity and can do spirit (gee, Wally, you really think so?)
the U.S. can better any deal the CHICOMS or Franks make. Let's be
honest, since Moscow gave up the whole idea of a Brotherhood of New
Socialist Man and went back to racketeering, the whole market of last
resort has opened wide. If you can't buy US, then, like in the cold war,
you buy someone else. From increasingly sophisticated weapon systems
(CHICOMS) to crappy consumer goods (Franks. Look, if the CHICOMS made my
iPod, then....). In short, muscle them out the door, pat them on the
backside and say good bye. While they're there to extract, we'll go to develop. Like that poor, drowning scorpion, we can't help it. It's in our nature.

And it could be done relatively quickly, like in the 2008-2150
timeframe. Walk in the park. Kidding.

See, it's about competition. People, organizations and countries need to compete.

If someone tells you different, then they're probably trying to rip you off. Just goes to figure.

So we'll be rubbing ad bumping up against CHICOM, INC and the rump Frankish state in Africa. Looks like fun.

Competition is cool. Interconnection, actual interconnection (with a dash of freedom) is better. We compete with the E.U. over Airbust and Boeing, and perhaps we'll wind up negotiating moon rights with the CHICOMs.

Who knows?


Back to AFRICOM.

The best part about AFRICOM is it's status as a new, probably more agressive type of COMCOM. From GOVEXEC:

African Command, or AFRICOM, will be unusual in that its headquarters will have a much greater interagency make-up and civilian membership than the other unified commands, with significant participation by the State Department, U.S. AID and other government organizations, said Ryan Henry, under secretary of defense for policy.

AFRICOM will be the first COMCOM to unite the olive and the arrows. May be a model for future, interagency, effects based approach to global problems.

Kumbayah!!