Posted on 09/21/2011 10:08:59 AM PDT by AfricanChristian
Africa appears to be in the process of throwing up two new alarming problems, one of them piracy on the west coast, to add to that already rampant on the east coast, and generational fracturing within South Africa's ruling party.
A third disturbing problem is that the approach to Africa by the administration of President Barack Obama is becoming increasingly dominated by the U.S. military, in the form of the U.S. Africa Command, created in 2008 during the administration of former President George W. Bush.
AFRICOM's latest maneuver, undoubtedly part of an effort to prevent Defense Department budget cuts in upcoming cost-trimming exercises, has been the claim of its commander, Gen. Carter F. Ham, that al-Qaida seeks to coordinate its efforts in Africa. Gen. Ham's contention is at variance with analysis of other observers. They see the pieces of al-Qaida acting increasingly independently of each other.
Gen. Ham says that the Shabab in Somalia in East Africa, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in North Africa and Boko Haram in Nigeria present a threat to the United States as they work to coordinate their activities. He cited no evidence to support his contention.
A quick glance at the map to see the distances between the three organizations' areas of operation, the different characters of their memberships and their greatly varying objectives make Mr. Ham's claim, at best, in need of documentation and, at worst, an indication that he is making his own Africa policy, independent of the rest of the U.S. government.
The piracy problem off the west coast of Africa revealed itself most recently in the hijacking this month of a Cyprus-flagged vessel that was transferring Nigerian oil to a Norwegian-flagged vessel in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of the small West African state of Benin.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
The penalty for piracy is and has always been death, immediate and summary, no questions asked. If the civilized world continues to let it fester it will continue to grow, unabated, because the rewards are great and the risks are low. Even Russia let their pirates go, or so they said, but were never seen again. But I haven’t heard of any more Russian ships being pirated.............
There are several YouTube videos of a Russian warship engaging some pirates. I cannot attest to their validity, they appear shot with cellphones or cheap video recorders - they could be fake for all I know. But every one of them is similar in nature. The weapons were confiscated, the Russians left - then blew the ship apart from a safe distance with missles, while the sailors laughed and toasted their 'victory' with Vodka.
Say what you will about the Russians, they know how to treat piracy.
ditto.
i thought bill gates and warren buffet were going to fix africa.
/s
That they do........
“Africa appears to be in the process of throwing up two new problems” - that happens when you drink too much.
It’s not meaningful any more to talk about “al Queda”. It’s the Global Jihad. Also, they don’t really need to coordinate their pirate activities.
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