Stars and Stripes reports that Bush “has approved a plan for an Africa Command, defense officials said Friday.”
But a Pentagon official confirmed that President Bush had approved the concept of an Africa Command, and Defense officials now are working on changing the Unified Command Plan to make the new command a reality.
WaPo’s William Arkin wrote earlier this month on what a bad idea the Rumsfeld plan for an Africa Command would be…
Mr. Transformation, Mr. Anti-headquarters failed to reduce the bureaucracy. Instead the Rumsfeld legacy will be yet another four-star organization with all of the demands of generalship, protocol, diplomacy, force requirements, bureaucracy, support and consulting characteristic of these premier American fiefdoms.
SNIP
Defense industry giant Norman Augustine coined an expression to describe the incessant proclivity of the military to constantly reorganize, to build new organizational charts: New tree, same monkeys.
Africa Command though isn’t just a waste of resources: It does the wrong thing and sends the wrong message. We will build a multi-million dollar headquarters somewhere, organize a permanent staff overseen by a dozen flag officers; build bases and institute “force protection”; organize new meetings, conferences, exercises and operations. We will be ever so pleased that we have put all of Africa under one unified organization, with one commander. We will talk about the need for non-military solutions, for economic development, improved health care and support for democracy. Our Africa specialists will finally feel satisfied that they have had their day and joined the senior varsity.Our adversaries and the skeptics of American power will just see it all as another example of empire and military domination in the making. (emphasis mine)
Bush’s Empire of Doom…never ending waste and war.