Africa: The new battleground What happened in Niger last month alarmed Washington by highlighting the forthcoming threats in Africa, and raised questions about the role of the United States in confronting IS on a new front line. Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford said in a press conference October 23 that, because of IS's defeats in Iraq and Syria, it “has aspirations to establish a larger presence” in Africa. He also mentioned the need for “the allocation of forces that meet what we see as the threat, what we anticipate the threat to be.” During the discussions and debates Washington witnessed last week, it was reported that there is an American drone and air base in Agadez, Niger, and 800 troops are deployed in the country to operate alongside anti-terror efforts in Nigeria and Mali. There is still a great deal that is not known about the American presence in Africa, in addition to the timeline and nature of the October 4th attack in Niger that left four US soldiers dead. “This is a direct result of sequestration,” said Senator John McCain, speaking after a Senate panel briefing by the Department of Defence and referring to automatic military spending cuts in the Federal budget; the Arizona Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee continued, “it's our responsibility, and we should be embarrassed, at best.” Following that same briefing, Senator Robert Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), said: “I emerge with more questions than answers... Most importantly, there need to be public hearings. The American people need to know why we have 6,000 U.S. troops in Africa. We need to reassess our strategy and tactics and, most important, reinforce our resources.” During the heated debate about the new front line it was also mentioned that, in a recent Armed Services testimony by AFRICOM commander General Thomas Waldhauser, he said that only 20 per cent to 30 per cent of US Africa Command's intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance requirements were being met. Talks in Washington about IS, Al-Qaeda and Radical Islamic Terrorism in Africa are continuing to point fingers to different spots on the continent's map. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council's Africa Centre, speaking about Libya in a recent National Public Radio (NPR) interview, said: “It's the vacuum created first by the intervention in Libya and the collapse of the Libyan state and subsequently the failure of any Libyan state to really emerge. That's created a vacuum that has flooded the region not only with fighters and unemployed trained soldiers but also literally a flood of weapons. And the squeeze that's been put on IS in Libya certainly will continue to push fighters south and into this Sahel region.”
Pence, McMaster: From Beirut to Tehran Iran's behaviour, activities and influence in the region was the main theme of two senior American officials last week. Both Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser General HR McMaster delivered remarks at a Washington, DC, ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of the US Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. The attack, which occurred on October 23, 1983, killed 241 service members, including 220 Marines. In his speech Pence said: “The Beirut barracks bombing was the opening salvo in a war that we have waged ever since -- the global war on terror. It's a conflict that has taken American troops across the wider world -- from Lebanon to Libya, from Nigeria to Afghanistan, from Somalia to Iraq, and many other battlefields in between.” Pence also noted, “The brutal act that brings us here today was planned and perpetrated by the terrorists of Hizbullah.” He added, “Under President Trump's leadership, we've redoubled our commitment to cripple Hizbullah's terrorist network and bring its leaders to justice.” Later in the week, General McMaster was asked by Alhurra - a US-funded Arabic TV Channel: “Would the sanctions be enough to sort of curb these activities of either Iran or its proxies, including Lebanon, in the region?” McMaster answered: “Well, we hope so, right? Inshallah. We would love for sanctions and diplomacy to help convince the Iranian people. You know the president and the vice-president recently have a very strong message to confront the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, to confront the Iranian dictatorship, but have very conciliatory words for the Iranian people. And, so, what we would hope for is that sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps would incentivise others to organise groups within Iranian society to do legitimate business and not to do business to enrich an organisation whose main export is murder and brutality.”
