AFRICOM goes live. Who notices?

The Good? Africa is no longer a neglected backwater for the military, with its own Combatant Commander, HQ staff, area of responsibility, and funding.

The bad? No one trusts it. Their mission and justification has become a comically-moving target (see below). Their funding keeps getting cut. And it's HQs is in Stuttgart, Germany, because no African nations are willing to host it, except Liberia (and we all know how eager US servicemembers are to move to that bastion of West-African stability).

AFRICOM Becomes Fully Operational

First conceived in late 2006 as a command to facilitate security co-operation programmes in Africa, AFRICOM has been accused of being an effort to militarise US foreign policy in Africa; as a command post for systematic US exploitation of the continent's natural resources; as a vehicle for the US defence industry to sell its products; and as a vehicle to build up African surrogates to act on behalf of US interests in all of the above.

By: Brant