AFRICOM: New Command for Ancient Place

The United States has created a new unified command for military forces in Africa: AFRICOM. For a first glance at some details, see the article at FrontPageMag.com entitled: Creating an Africa Command.

This is a smart move, for a number of reasons. There are many political issues in Africa that don't get the attention they need or deserve, because currently the region is divided among three unified commands (CENTCOM, PACOM AND EUCOM). Consolidating all of Africa and its adjacent islands, except for Egypt, which will remain with CENTCOM, under AFRICOM will make US policy much more coherent and proactive.

Issues that trouble Africa include the spread of radical Islam from the Middle East: Saudi Arabia is just across the Red Sea from Sudan and Egypt. This has played a significant historical role. It is worth recalling that African peoples were colonizing Europe in significant numbers long before Europeans were colonizing Africa. Within just a few decades of the death of Mohammed, Arab Imperialism, under the banner of Islam, had spread across North Africa to the shores of the Atlantic. The Mujahideen turned north and attacked the Iberian Peninsula, subjugating Spain in just three years; the Reconquista took centuries.

Meanwhile, Islam also spread south across the Sahara desert to sub-Saharan Africa. As power in Northern Africa slipped from the Arabs and fell into the hands of Berbers and other peoples, the Islamic Empire in Spain fell into increased disorder; it was, after all, a colony of North Africa, and wars among various Islamic peoples in Africa influenced politics in their colonies in Spain.

Attacks from North Africa against Mediterranean and Southern European targets continued into modern times. Shortly after its birth, the United States of America found itself confronting the Barbary Coast Pirates, Mujahideen raiders on the Mediterranean Sea, based out of North Africa, who were attacking the shipping of America and other seafaring nations, and enslaving and ransoming the crews. (Unlike modern Islamic terrorist attacks, the late-18th century attacks on American targets can in no way be blamed on US support for Israel or other US policies in the Middle East!)

The enslavement of non-Muslims was nothing new; the Arab slave trade really got started in the 8th and 9th Centuries with the spread of Islam. At first, it thrived on people from the north and east (Slavs and Persians, for example), but by the 18th and 19th centuries, the bulk of slaves on the Arab market were coming from Africa. Regardless of quantities, the Arab slave trade predated European trans-Atlantic slavetrading by centuries. Interestingly, African slave trade was not so much one of Arabs or Europeans launching expeditions to capture slaves, as much as merchants buying slaves from middlemen, except in the case of Islamic conquest. Unlike slaves taken to the New World, who were used as laborers, slaves taken to the Middle East were often women used for harems, but also included males who had their genitals mutilated, then were used as eunuchs to guard the harems. Trade in African (and other) slaves continues to the present day, mostly in areas of Africa subject to Islamic control, since Islamic Law takes as the word of Allah that slavery is permissible.

The Sahara Desert, much like the Arabian Desert, was not so much a barrier to travel as it was like a giant sea of sand, across which caravans instead of ships carried their cargoes. In fact, a significant trans-Saharan trade network developed from the 8th century to the 16th century. Timbuktu was not a place at the end of the earth, but rather became a center of wealth and even scholarship known of as far away as Europe because of its location astride trans-Saharan trade routes.

Africa is rich in mineral resources. Much of America's oil comes from Nigeria, an African regional power. More oil resources are being developed nearby. With much of Africa ruled by governments where corruption is rampant, instability and political volatility are a major concern. The combination of instability and volatility in an area so vital to the world economy, and astride such significant shipping routes (the Red and Mediterranean Seas, the Cape of Good Hope, and West Africa, near which passes much shipping to and from Europe) makes a proactive policy a must, especially given that newfound petrodollars are available to fuel the ambitions of those who can seize them amidst the turmoil.