Day: December 18, 2013

In The Heart Of Africa

Continuing down the foreign policy path……let us move on to the “Dark Continent”…….

Some say that the heart of Africa died on 05 December, Nelson Mandela, which may be very accurate….but in this case I am talking about the actual heart of the continent…..the Central Africa Republic…….

What a couple of decades ago was known as the Central Africa Empire….in 1976 the empire was formed by Boukassa and in 1979 the French assisted in throwing him out of power……and since then it has been known as the Central African Republic…..but things did not go as well as the French and others had hoped…..nothing went well leaders were sworn in then thrown out…the longest lasted about 10 years and during all this time there has been a simmering resentment among the various factions and at times has erupted into bloodshed…….

And finally the French have flexed its muscle….like they did in Mali…looks like they are trying to keep their old colonies in line…..

(Newser) – As sectarian fighting rages on in the Central African Republic, France has seen its first casualties since announcing it would deploy more soldiers to the country, says the office of French president Francois Hollande. Two soldiers were killed late yesterday in Bangui, the AP reports. The paratroopers were involved in fighting near the airport, says a French official. “They were injured and very quickly taken to the surgical unit, but unfortunately they could not be saved.”

Yesterday, French and African troops began disarming militias and fighters who call themselves part of a new army in the CAR, the BBC reports. Following a South Africa memorial for Nelson Mandela, Hollande himself is due in the country later today, where some 10% of the population has fled from home and more than a million need food, the BBC notes.

So with all this chaos……..what will the US do….will it aid an allyt or will it stay away from entanglements that could have wider implications?

Here’s your answer!

(Newser) – Now the US is getting involved: Washington has agreed to fly European and African peacekeepers into the Central African Republic to help quell the bloody strife between various Muslim and Christian groups and other rebel militias, CNN reports. US military aircraft will fly troops—including a few French ones—from Burundi into Bangui, the Central African Republic’s capital. The operations will likely be small, but the US will have to secure its own planes and hasn’t said how many of its troops will be involved. Violence on the ground will be “a big factor,” according to a US official.

The US agreed to get involved after a direct plea from French and African Union peacekeepers, who have already been on the ground in the Central African Republic. Today’s development comes after the UN Security Council approved military intervention in the beleaguered African nation, where rebels overthrew the president in March and agreed to share power with the government—but the country has since devolved into near collapse. Defense Department officials are expected to make an official announcement today.

Now we get to see just what our aid will produce……..I worry every time the US helps its allies…..more than one war has been started by our assistance….

Since I wrote this draft more news has come to light…….from AJE

Some European countries will send troops to support a French-African mission to restore order in the Central African Republic, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

France has deployed 1,600 troops to its former colony to prevent worsening violence between Christian militias and the largely Muslim Seleka rebels who ousted ex-President Francois Bozize.

While European nations including Poland, Britain, Germany, Spain and Belgium have provided various forms of assistance, French troops are intervening alone for the second time this year after ousting armed rebels in Mali, another former French colony.

Diplomats said the ground troops involved could come from Belgium and Poland and may be used to relieve French forces who are securing the airport in Bangui.

Is this the beginning of a wider war?  Just what will be the US part in this conflict?  Is this a new chapter in the old imperialism book written for Africa more than a century ago?  Where does this stop?  Who will make it cease?

Questions….I have questions…..to quote Roy Batty.  (You know you are a nerd if you get that reference)…….

John Kerry’s Diplomacy May Be Failing in the Peace Process | New Republic

Continuing with my focus of the day….foreign policy…….

Peace is a diminishing return as long as all concerned will not give an inch…..the institution of war precludes a viable peace.

Every prez comes to power with a plan to stop the killing and maiming in the Middle East…..and every prez fails…..John Kerry and Pres. Obama will meet the same fate as their predecessors….

John Kerry’s Diplomacy May Be Failing in the Peace Process | New Republic.

Yank The Carpet Out From Under Them!

Keeping with the focus of today…..foreign policy.  Syria is on NO one’s mind at this time………but the US and the UK have done something that got little attention thanx to the endless brain numbing Obamacare rhetoric……..

(Newser) – The US and Britain have cut off aid to Syria’s opposition, after Islamist rebel groups seized bases loaded with Western-provided goods from their former Free Syrian Army colleagues. The move won’t affect humanitarian aid, a US embassy spokesman tells the BBC, but rather the “non-lethal” military assistance the countries have been providing, like radios and body armor. The Islamic Front, a massive coalition of Jihad-minded groups that recently broke from the FSA, seized the facilities last week, capturing anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets among other supplies.

“We hope our friends will rethink and wait for a few days when things will be clearer,” said a spokesman for the FSA, which Reuters points out, desperately needs international backing to maintain its legitimacy. The move comes on the heels of two high-profile kidnappings by Islamist groups. Major Syrian human rights lawyer Razan Zeitouneh was abducted yesterday along with three of her colleagues, the New York Times reports, just hours after two Spanish journalists were kidnapped in a separate incident.

Is this a good direction?  I think that the US learned a lesson in Afghanistan in Wilson’s day………you cannot support the fundies and not supervise what they are doing or what they really hope to accomplish……throwing money at the problem simply because you do not approve of the current leader is a waste of time, money and effort.

This situation will become even more murky in 2014……..the map will give my reader a good look at the problems to come……..make NO mistake even with Assad gone….the problems will only be amplified……

The only really good news coming out of Syria is that Assad’s CWs most if not all have been located, tagged and await final destruction…….the really bad news is that there is a snake in the grass and is just waiting for the best time to strike……the jihadists are that snake and this situation will almost guarantee that they will be a threat to all regimes in the area for years to come……..

Foreign policy will play a roll in the debates of 2014….the problem is that most of the policy will be driven by politics……there is a mid term election after all…….political rhetoric can do as much harm as a weapon.

Lil Kim–Part 3

Today I will focus on foreign policy…….this should be a bone of contention in 2014…….we have the exit from Afghanistan……the Middle East……the Iranian deal in the making…..and whatever little fires pop up that we need to respond to with whatever force is indicated…….but the one that is not on the radar, at least for now, is North Korea.

By now most of the world knows about the leader or Lil Kim–part 3 ,as I have dubbed him, and his purge that is going on….he has arrested then executed his uncle for being a negative influence…….all that makes him a dangerous person especially to his inner circle…..ala Stalin in the 20’s and 30’s…….but the last statement that Sec of State Kerry made has me a bit disturbed…….

(Newser) – John Kerry looks at Kim Jong Un’s execution of his uncle and sees shades of another infamous dictator using bloody ruthlessness to secure his grip on power: Saddam Hussein. “You saw the pictures of his uncle being arrested in front of everybody at this meeting,” Kerry said in an interview today on ABC, as per Politico. “I mean it really reminded me of a video that we saw of Saddam Hussein doing the same thing, having people plucked out of an audience and people sitting there sweating and nobody daring to move.”

And that underscores how “spontaneous” and “erratic” the young ruler is, says Kerry. “To have a nuclear weapon, potentially, in the hands of somebody like Kim Jong Un just becomes even more unacceptable.” Further, Kerry says the “significant number of executions” in the last months “tells us a significant amount about the instability, internally, of the regime.” Meanwhile, it looks like Kim’s aunt is safe for now.

This may not seem like a big thing….but the implication that Kim is in the same league as Saddam is worrisome.  We are talking about a leader of a country that has “proven” nuke capabilities….is Kerry slowly making a case for some sort of action against the regime of Kim?

This is story that needs watching….it would really be easy to mobilize while all mouths are turned to Iran…….rhetoric is just that….. rhetoric…….like I stated…..worrisome!