By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, July 20, 2013
The Pentagon is involved in organizing war games in different part of the World. The stated military mandate is national security and the “Global War on Terrorism”.
The South African media has reported the holding of military exercises involving the US military and the South African National Defense Force (SANDF).
The South African and US armed forces are to conduct war games in the Eastern Cape over a period of almost two weeks (24 July to August 5)
The joint war games are to be coordinated by USAFRICOM’s “US Army Africa Contingency Command”.
“SA Navy Captain Jaco Theunissen said the militaries would share technical expertise during the exercise, which would start on 24 July and end on 5 August, and would involve 5 000 soldiers.
“We are exercising to do a human support intervention in an unstable country,” said Theunissen.
“What we simulate is what is currently happening in a lot of countries in the world, especially in the African continent.
“You’ve got warring factions destabilising the country…. We are exercising the war fight, where you will fight against rebel groups.”
Medical units would also practice giving basic medical healthcare to a local population in an unstable warring environment.
All branches of the SANDF – the army, air force, navy, and health – would participate.” (Times Live South Africa, July 18, 2013, emphasis added)
What these official statements imply is that The Republic of South Africa is slated to participate in US-NATO sponsored “humanitarian interventions” directed against other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which have been tagged by Washington as “unstable nations”.
What is not mentioned is that these so-called “unstable nations” are invariably the object of a US engineered political and economic destabilization process (including the imposition of deadly IMF-World Bank economic reforms), which create conditions for the “recolonization” of sub-Saharan Africa.
These July-August war games were prepared in prior exchanges in February at USAFRICOM headquarters in Vicenza, Italy between the U.S. Army Africa Contingency Command and SANDF commanders:
Col. Vuka Sean Mahlasela, 44th Parachute Regiment commander, South African National Defense Force, or SANDF, said the exercise helped both forces learn to cooperate with each other and improved the relationship between U.S. and South Africa.
“Joint and multinational operations have become the norm of the day. The national defense forces play a very significant role to be able to operate with regional, international and multinational forces to test tactics and share skills and knowledge as well as to learn from each other as multinational forces,” Mahlasela said.
Some of the training in which SANDF participated included basic command and control of a multinational exercise; intricacies of joint task force operations; requirements of different logistical infrastructures; and proposed ways on how to run meetings, which the U.S. military calls “Seven-Minute Drills.” USAFRICOM: US Army Africa command Post Soldiers Train with South African Forces March 8, 2013)
Lt. Col Light Jongilanga Tsalupondo, administrative commander for the 43rd Brigade of the South African National Defense Force, discusses training events with Staff Sgt. Robert Hamrick of U.S. Army Africa Contingency Command Post during a contingency command post exercise in preparation for Shared Accord 13 {July-August 2013 War Games]
These February training and briefing sessions for SANDF commanders were intended to create conditions, whereby the SANDF would directly collaborate with USAFRICOM in US led military operations on the African continent:
“[SANDF] will take back to their leadership how to better synchronize and collaborate with the U.S.,” said Palacios, a Bronx, N.Y. native. “This is the success that was achieved during these last few days and will set us up for long-term success during Shared Accord in July.”
While the stated purpose of the war games is to “protect Africa”, the real objective is imperial conquest. Washington’s hidden agenda is to “make Africans fight Africans”.
It is worth noting that the SANDF was recently involved in fighting rebel forces in the Central African Republic, in which 15 SANDF soldiers were killed.
The SANDF is supportive of US hegemonic objectives in Africa.
By collaborating with the US in joint military operations, the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) is, in some regards, playing a similar role to that of the SADF of the Apartheid period.
Appendix
Recent War Games in Asia Pacific
Korea
In April, the US completed a two-month-long ‘Foal Eagle’ exercise military exercise in Korea involving several thousand air, ground and naval personal. The objective was to trigger increased tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Australia
On July 18, the US commenced the largest joint war games in Australia’s history involving 20,000 US troops. The military exercises –which are part of the Pentagon’s “Asia Pivot”– are being staged on Australia’s eastern seaboard.
The Obama administration’s so-called “pivot to Asia” involves the repositioning of American military forces throughout the Asia-Pacific region as well as strengthening US military alliances and strategic partnerships in that part of the world.In order to display its military might, the Pentagon leads multinational military exercises each year in the Asia-Pacific region, which is a “very dangerous escalation of US military presence,” Rozoff said.
The exercises are “a cause of severe concern to countries like China and to Russia.”
Rozoff described the US military as “out of control” that needs to be disarmed and pacified by the international community.
The US and Australia have strengthened their alliance in recent years. The US military is building up its presence in Australia and plans to send 2,500 Marines there on six-month rotations each year starting in 2016. (Press TV, July 19, 2013)
Labels: AFRICOM, NEOCOLONIALISM, SOUTH AFRICA, ZIMBABWE
posted by MrK @ 5:34 PM
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