Bafflement
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on October 9th, 2008 4:28 am by HL
Bafflement
There was a joke going around conservative circles during the mid-1960s that we conservatives were warned that if we voted for Barry Goldwater, America would get deeper into the Vietnam War. The punch line was that we did vote for Goldwater and America did get deeper into Vietnam. (Of course, President Lyndon Johnson had campaigned on that warning, and then it was he who got us deeper in.) I couldn’t help thinking of that old joke Monday. It had been only Friday that members of the House had been warned that if they voted against the $700 billion bailout, the world’s stock exchanges would crash. Well, 171 representatives did vote no (though the bill passed anyway), and sure enough, on Monday, from Moscow to London to Paris to Frankfurt to Asia to New York, the markets of the world did crash.
Into Africom
With the establishment of the Pentagon’s new regional command for Africa, AFRICOM, addressing the complex political and social challenges of the African continent moves from diplomatic afterthought to shrewd long-term effort. The new theater command became operational Oct. 1. For decades, American diplomats serving in Africa — particularly sub-Saharan Africa — referred to their region as “the neglected continent.” I recall a conversation in the early 1990s with a U.S. Army officer tasked with supporting military attaches serving in embassies in southern Africa. Over breakfast he lamented the persistent lack of funds and personnel hampering State Department and Pentagon programs. U.S. military command structure reflected the “afterthought” status. Operations and assistance programs for most of Africa were administered by U.S. European Command (USEUCOM). Central Command (CENTCOM) had a chunk of Africa’s northeast. Pacific Command (PACOM) was responsible for islands off Africa in the Indian Ocean.
