Africa: U.S. Military Commander Reveals African Secrets

Africom
U.S. Marine Corps General Michael Langley, commander, U.S. Africa Command, delivering the 2023 U.S. Africa Command posture statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee March 16.
3 April 2023
African Security Research Project (Washington, DC)
analysis By Daniel Volman

Four-star Marine General Michael Langley, the new commander of the U.S. Africa Command (Africom), revealed two astounding secrets about U.S. military operations in Africa on 16 March 2023, when he appeared at the Senate Armed Services Committee annual hearing on the Africom budget request.

In his testimony, Langley disclosed that Africom has established a forward headquarters in Africa (in addition to its main headquarters in Stuttgart, German).  When asked if Africom might follow the example of Central Command (which has its main headquarters in Tampa, Florida, but which has established a forward headquarters in Qatar), he replied that "I can talk about that in closed session, because we do have something established to that contract."

General Langley also publicly and directly contradicted the repeated assertions by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and many other American officials that Washington did not want to make African countries choose between the United States and its Sino-Russian rivals.  Washington's actual view, he explained, was that "they make choices, and they make the wrong choices in siding with—going with either PRC or Russia for especially lethal aid."\

As Langley explained, this means that Washington should make it easier and faster for African governments to get American military equipment.  African governments "come and they ask and said, hey General Langley, we don't want your boots on the ground, we want your equipment."  But the U.S. arms sales program, "it's moving too slow, Senator, just moving too slow and they make the wrong decisions."

So African governments will be judged by the company they keep—the United States or Russia and China—and will be treated accordingly.  Making the "wrong choices" or the "wrong decisions" will have consequences.

For additional information and data, see "Biden's FY 2024 Budget Plan for Africa: Send More Guns" at africansecurity.org

Daniel Volman is the Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC, and a specialist on U.S. military policy toward Africa and African security issues.

 

 

Read the original article on African Security Research Project.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2023 African Security Research Project. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.