Bullshit "Intercept" Article
Gotta read between the lines.
Normally, I find articles from The Intercept to be somewhat elucidating. This is true even though one of its founders, Glenn Greenwald, a journalist I highly admire, regularly denounces the outlet. And even though, Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim, two other journalists I admire, left last year to found Drop Site.
But this article, by Nick Turse, their newly hired, National Security Reporting Fellow, was complete trash. Slickly written to appeal to U.S. government dissidents, upon close examination, one realizes that, with two exceptions, the main source of information comes from the Pentagon. The article, entitled, Pentagon: U.S. Counterterrorism Efforts Have Failed Africans, discusses the U.S.’ efforts to squelch Islamic terrorism in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel.
The West’s meddling in Africa leads to terrorism
What the article doesn’t discuss is the origin of Islamic terrorism in the Sahel. Libyan opposition groups opposed to Qaddafi were funded and armed by the West. The West was afraid of Qaddafi’s plan to unify Africa with one African currency backed by African’s gold. After Qaddafi was brutally murdered by NATO and Libyan opposition groups, violence and terrorism in the Sahel proliferated using arms and connections borne from the quest to usurp Qaddafi. Is this not an important fact? Essentially, it’s the West meddling in African affairs to the detriment of Africa.
The Sahel Alliance. Scourge of the West?
Currently, the three countries that make up the Sahel Alliance, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, are run by military juntas who seized power from weak and corrupt leaders who were in bed with the West. According to the article, these countries are losing the fight against terrorism. It states that many civilians have been killed, but it doesn’t provide context for who is killing whom. Obviously, civilians are helplessly caught in the middle between terrorists groups and the government. Some of the methods that these nations use to fight terrorism include targeting entire villages where terrorists are known to hide. Admittedly, not the best strategy.
The West’s efforts to eliminate terrorism
The article also failed to mention that the French and U.S. military forces in the Sahel failed to squelch terrorism after several years of military occupation. So much so that these Sahelian countries requested that these countries withdraw their military. It has also been asserted that France, in particular, is actually funding the terrorists so as to keep the Sahel destabilized; to rely on France indefinitely; and to supply France with precious resources. It’s a well known fact that France relies heavily on Africa and has supported numerous assassinations of African leaders who failed to bow to France.
“Former French president Jacques Chirac acknowledged that ‘without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power.’ Chirac's predecessor François Mitterand already prophesied in 1957 that ‘Without Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century.’”
The U.S. is also jockeying heavily in Africa, even though Trump seems less interested in this “shithole,” as he described Africa, than his predecessors. That won’t stop the U.S military machine and oligarchs. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos already have one foot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through a tin mining venture.
The Great White Hope
All of this to say that, the summary of the article, if you read between the lines, is that the U.S. must save Africa from itself. And most important, save the U.S. from danger!
U.S. general, Michael Langley, stated that the West African Sahel was now the “epicenter of terrorism,” and the gravest terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland. Really? Not the undying support of Israel’s takeover of West Asia? That’s not the greatest threat?
Articles like this one rely on the lack of interest and knowledge in international politics by Americans. Key phrases like, “Islamic terrorism,” are meant to scare the bejesus out of Americans and force the memory of 9/11. The goal is to scare Americans enough to justify an invasion of the Sahel to “keep Americans safe.” Never mentioned are the vast resources in the Sahel, the gold, the tin, the uranium, etc. that the West needs and wants.
Essentially, it plays out like this. The U.S. creates hysteria about growing Islamic terrorism and how the U.S. is under threat. It then invades the Sahel to combat said terrorism. It overthrows the governments of the Sahel Alliance. Occupies the countries. And finally, steals its resources and allows American oligarchs to set up businesses and partake in the loot.
Other techniques used by the U.S. to trigger Americans is to relay that Russia is controlling African leaders (an article also written by Terse, the Intercept author referred to) and somehow forcing their hand. Remember that Russia is supposed to be the bogey man that will force communism on dull witted dummies who have no knowledge of world history. This excellent video by YouTube’s, Danny Haiphong discusses how the West often cannot conceive that Africans can think for themselves and align themselves with those they feel have their best interest at heart.
In the early 20th century, Africans lamenting their subservient status were accused of being communist and aligned with Russia. Even Martin Luther King was accused of being linked to communism. Why? Because the U.S. thought he could not possibly advocate for equality without Russia putting those silly ideas in his head.
This concept is similar to drapetomania, an “illness” manufactured by white doctors during slavery that posited that slaves “suffered from” a mental illness which caused them to run away from the “good life” of slavery. Again, the root is the notion that black people do not have the intellectual capacity to abhor being dominated by whites.
Not this time
The outpouring of support for Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traore and the leaders of Mali and Niger, has been unprecedented. Even a cursory look at social media surrounding the support of the Sahel Alliance leaders will show that the assassination of leadership and/ or the take over of these countries would be sublimely unwise. African Diaspora worldwide have made that clear. Too many African leaders have been murdered at the behest of the West in order to maintain control over the continent. Simply put, the Diaspora is not having it.