Don't be deceived by semantics

Don't be deceived by semantics
By Editor
Monday September 17, 2007 [04:00]

AFRICA doesn't need any United States military bases. The establishment of any military base in any African country should be vigorously opposed by the African people. It won't solve any of our problems. Our experience as a continent and the experience of others is that the United States has not succeeded in solving problems anywhere in the world through the use of force.

They tried it in Somalia a few years ago; they sent very well-trained and well-equipped troops into that poor country to fight militias but they failed to achieve anything; they failed to bring peace to that war-torn country. Instead they succeeded in fragmenting that country further and deepening its disintegration.

It should by now be clear to the political and military leaders of the United States that none of the present problems of the world can be solved by force. What we need to do is to build a world conscious against conflict, against violence and against war in general.

Only intelligent policy, seeking peace through peaceful means, consensus and international public opinion can decidedly bring peace in our world. We will continue to have violent conflicts in the world unless a non-imperial path of international peace and cooperation is pursued.

It is time the United States realised that the role of being a world policeman it wants to assume cannot work. It will not do for the United States to set up military bases in every region of the world. What makes the United States think only itself, using its military might, can bring peace to the world?

Today, the US has troops or military bases in almost every region but what peace has it brought to the world? And invariably it would appear wherever they are, conflict is hated. Peace cannot be established by bullying others. The United States’ presence in the Middle East has clearly demonstrated that no one country, no matter how well-developed or equipped its armed forces may be, can claim to have the monopoly of force.

For almost six years the United States and its NATO allies have failed to defeat the Taliban militias and bring peace to Afghanistan. A similar story, if not worse, can be told in Iraq.

For close to five years the United States military might in Iraq has failed to defeat militias in that country.
To us this is the clear sign that United States military is incapable of bringing peace to the world. If anything it has succeeded in breeding hatred and contempt for that militarily, economically and politically powerful country that could be playing a very influential and positive role in our world today. The heavy reliance on bullying and blackmail, using military and economic means, has only brought contempt and hatred for the United States.

This being the situation, this being the reality, why is the United States still trying to set up more military bases or command offices all over the world? In an economic situation such as the world is experiencing today, when extremely serious problems affecting mankind remain unsolved, including its own survival which is threatened by other evils unrelated to the destructive power of modern weaponry, one wonders:

why this obstinate desire by the United States to continue expanding its military presence in every part of our world, trying to solve every conflict by starting complicated and endless wars? The military bases or command offices the United States wants to establish on our continent are not for peaceful means of solving problems but for violent ways of dealing with conflict.

It's true that no country in the world today, including the United States, can solve all its problems by itself. International cooperation is needed. And the United States can play a very big role in helping to build a more peaceful, more humane, more fair, more just world without resorting to military might and economic and political blackmail.

By now the United States political leadership should have realised that not every people in the world can be bullied or intimidated by their military might. The Afghans and the Iraqis are showing this every day. And more and more peoples of the world are preparing and arming themselves to respond effectively to what they see as United States arrogance and imperial approach in dealing with global problems and conflicts.

Others are demonstrating that no amount of economic and political blackmail can make them yield to United States hegemony. For close to fifty years, the Cubans have defied the United States economic blockade with a lot of difficulties but at the same time with a lot of dignity.

Many countries of the Latin America today are struggling to free themselves from United States hegemony and arrogance. Why can't the leaders of this great country realise that the world today cannot be governed on the basis of imperial domination, relying on military might and economic and political blackmail.

Can't they see that their policy is just helping to spiral the arms race. Today the Russians are spending billions trying to modernise or update their armed forces, and are developing new and more destructive weaponry.

The Chinese are continually increasing their military spending and are expanding their military capacity. The Indians and the Pakistanis are also doing the same. Of course, many countries in the world are following this same path.

Where will this lead the world and what is fuelling it? Is this the correct path to world peace and security?
And now that the United States has made it clear that it is seeking to establish an African Command Office in Zambia, the Zambian government and the Zambian people must make it very clear to them that whatever this means or entails, it is equally not acceptable. This is because it amounts to the same thing as setting up a military base here.

The United States has enough diplomatic organs to help contribute to the economic development of our country and our continent. Through these organs the training of peacekeepers has been successfully conducted in cooperation with our armed forces. No one is opposed to this type of cooperation and we don't need a United States Africa Command Office in our country to achieve this.

Therefore, any attempt by the United States to set up an African Command Office in Zambia should be vigorously opposed as has been the case with the setting up of the military base because both amount to the same thing and will give rise to the same problems - they are one and the same thing; it is just a matter of semantics.