Bush: U.S. Not Adding Bases In Africa

President Says U.S. Not Seeking Military Power In Africa Or Showdown With China

(AP)  In a country teeming with resources the world covets, President Bush sought Wednesday to soothe African fears about American interests on the continent. He said the U.S. isn't aiming to make Africa into a base for greater military power or a proxy battleground with China.

The desire for Africa's vast raw materials - oil, gold, diamonds, minerals, crops and more - has a long and often violent and exploitative history.

That's especially true in this tropical, sweltering, resource-rich nation on the shores of West Africa, the first place in sub-Saharan Africa that Europeans arrived to trade, first in gold, then slaves, and now the site of a new offshore oil discovery.

So it came as little surprise that Bush's talk about how U.S. generosity has made strides against disease and poverty encountered some skepticism here about the underlying American agenda. Some of those questions arose during Bush's appearance with Ghana's leader at Osu Castle, once a hub of slave-trading and now the seat of government.

With no prompting at a news conference, Bush sought to deal with suspicions about the creation of a new U.S. military command dedicated to Africa.

Nations such as Libya, Nigeria and South Africa have expressed fears that the plan signals an unwanted expansion of American power on the continent or is a cover for protecting Africa's oil on behalf of the U.S. Bush said Ghana's President, John Kufuor, bluntly told him in private that "you're not going to build any bases in Ghana."

"I know there's rumors in Ghana, `All Bush is coming to do is try to convince you to put a big military base here,"' Bush said. "That's baloney. Or as we say in Texas, that's bull. ... I want to dispel the notion that all of a sudden America is bringing all kinds of military to Africa."

Instead, Bush said the new command - unique to the Pentagon's structure - was aimed at more effectively reorganizing U.S. military efforts related to Africa under one hierarchy, and to strengthen African nations' peacekeeping, trafficking, anti-terror and other efforts.

For now, the administration has decided to continue operating AFRICOM out of existing U.S. bases on the continent and directing it from Stuttgart, Germany. Bush said "we haven't made our minds up" about whether to "develop some kind of office somewhere in Africa" as a headquarters. But war-wrecked Liberia is the only African nation that has offered to host it.

Kufuor said Bush's explanation "should put fade to the speculation."

On China, Bush insisted "we can pursue agendas without creating a sense of competition." Still, he made his argument clear: that the United States is the better and kinder partner, because it aims to improve African lives while nations like China focus on commercial opportunity to the exclusion of almost everything else.

In an indirect swipe at Beijing, Bush suggested that African leaders set standards such as the employment of African workers or keeping value-added processes on the continent for countries seeking to do business here - and promised the United States would meet them.

"I just will tell you that our policy is aimed at helping people," the president said.

But there is no question that American economic interests also matter here. On energy alone, a fifth of U.S. oil comes from Nigeria. Ghana's oil discovery last year matters, even if it won't rival that.

Jennifer Cooke, an authority on Africa for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Bush's altered approach to foreign aid - in which assistance is restricted to nations that embrace free markets, fight corruption and invest in education and health - is in part a counter argument to China's formidable presence. Beijing is making investments and forging relationships that have drawn some controversy here, but also enough applause to create concern in Washington.

Ghana was the first African nation to receive a compact from Bush's Millennium Challenge Corporation, one worth $547 million over five years to expand markets for crops.

"China has a major focus on infrastructure and Africans appreciate that very much about the Chinese engagement," Cooke said. "And so this is a way, I think, of trying to do things differently in ways that matter to Africans."

For his part, Kufuor had no criticism for China, saying its products are "quite competitive" and its system bound to turn more democratic.

"I can assure you our nations are not succumbing to dictates and impositions, not from China nor elsewhere," he said. "So as far as we are concerned, so far, it's all right with China."

Bush also came to Ghana - "the front-row, straight-A student of Africa," as White House spokesman Tony Fratto put it - because it is the kind of story he likes to promote. It's a stable, relatively well administered democracy that has largely avoided ethnic clashes and played a busy peacekeeping role on the continent under Kufuor's leadership. Ghana also has cut its still-persistent poverty and is known for press freedoms.

But it is still dependent on foreign aid, including millions each year from the United States. "`Mr. President, Africa salutes you for these gestures of goodwill improving lives on the people on the continent," Kufuor said at a lavish dinner thrown for Bush and about 500 others Wednesday night.

From Ghana, Bush will fly to Liberia on Thursday and then back to Washington. He also has visited Benin, Tanzania and Rwanda.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Yeah! There''''s NO OIL THERE - so no need for Bases!
Anyway - the official term for the bases are Outposts or Camps." Posted by watcher269

Don''t you know that Nigeria is one of the founding members of OPEC, and has some of the world''s largest oil reserves? Did you forget the Shell oil slave labor episode?

"resource-rich nation on the shores of West Africa, the first place in sub-Saharan Africa that Europeans arrived to trade, first in gold, then slaves, and now the site of a new offshore oil discovery."

The yellow cake Niger lies of Bush were predicated on the fact that Niger (not Nigeria) has deposits of uranium, and is the principal supplier to the US.

Of course Bush wants bases there, to be close in case the slaves revolt against their corporate masters.

[watcher269-2009]

Actually, most of these Bushed! segments are about lying liars, aren%u2019t they? Continuing to track the scandals du jour that make up life in BushWorld, the first story up is Bush%u2019s touting of his increases to his global fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria. The only problem is that the %u201Cincrease%u201D that Bush wants Congress to approve is actually a 40% decrease from last year%u2019s Congressional-instigated funding.

Then there is the story of the infamous border fence being built along the US / Mexico border, ostensibly to prevent illegal immigration. Many residents near the border have been grumbling about the fence going through their land, but there%u2019s one Texas resident that isn%u2019t worried at all, because the border fence will stop at his property: R. L. Hunt. I%u2019m sure the fact that he%u2019s a oil billionaire, who not only donated money to the Bush campaigns but also helped fund the upcoming presidential library and sits on the board for Halliburton had nothing to do with it.

[watcher269-2009]

Yeah! There''s NO OIL THERE - so no need for Bases!

Anyway - the official term for the bases are Outposts or Camps.

[incog-nito]

Bush: "We''re not adding bases in Africa. We''re too busy building them in Iraq. When we''re done with that, THEN we''ll be adding bases in Africa."

[brianbwb-2009]

We have all learned the hard way that the truth is always exactly the opposite of whatever Bush says.

[gkc99]

"President Bush sought Wednesday to soothe African fears about American interests on the continent. He said the U.S. isn''t aiming to make Africa into a base for greater military power or a proxy battleground with China. "


Bushit''s got enough bases in the Middle East to deal with any number of wayward Nigras.

As for the Chinese--well they remember how they got their knuckles rapped in Belgrade!

[rowdytexan2]

lol, Bush doesn''t have a *** dime to put up a base in Africa, unless he gets it out of his and Cheney''s pocket. But he''s obviously on a fishin trip!

Thank God and Greyhound he''ll be gone in January.

[rbburnerjr]

Do we have to let him back in the country?

[changenow]

Bush: U.S. Not Adding Bases In Africa

With what money?

[inventagod]

Bu$h - the Liar King in Africa...

''the bases in Djibouti and Senegal are strategically place to protect US oil interests. Djibouti is located at the narrow Bab el Mandeb Strait at the entrance of the Red Sea, at the "world''s busiest shipping lanes and close to Arabian oilfields," according to the CIA. Senegal, at the West African coast is strategically placed in a region with intensive oil explorations, which the US hopes may become a new major oil supplier within some years.

In North Africa, often considered "the backyard" of the European Union, US military presence is still more limited but is in many ways covered by NATO cooperations. The US however has developed a close military and intelligence cooperation with several North African countries, in particular Morocco and Egypt. Cooperation with Algeria and Tunisia is also improving.

In addition to this new strategic network of flexible bases, the Pentagon is known to have signed a large number of military pacts with governments all over Africa during the last years. These include oil producers such as Gabon and Mauritania, but also less significant resource owners such as Guinea Conakry and Rwanda. The US has indeed developed into the principal military partner of most African countries, displacing ex-colonial powers.''

http://www.afrol.com/articles/14269

[joyous88]

if his lips are moving he is lying

[gce65]

Already have a major SpecOps base in Djibouti and all the secret CIA prisons we need in Morocco and Egypt.

[watcher269-2009]

Yes! We are adding Outposts - not Bases!

[watcher269-2009]

Another Bushit Lie?

Also why aren''t these stories on the CBS (so called News website)?

OLBERMANN: Why would evidence like this entire AT&T room in San Francisco%u2014we know the number of the room, we know the guy who hooked it all up. Why is that not sufficient to at least move this lawsuit on?

TURLEY: Well, that%u2019s part of the ridiculous element to all this. That we know there%u2019s an NSA program; we know that it%u2019s illegal. There%u2019s been no showing nor is no showing possible that the President had the authority to order what he did. This is a crime, defined under federal law. So there%u2019s no mystery to the program, there%u2019s not a particular debate to its illegality. The only issue is standing: the ability of someone to come in and say, %u201CI can show I was individually harmed.%u201D And they can%u2019t do that because the Courts won%u2019t give them the information they need and Congress will do nothing to force out into the public the information needed to get this type of relief. And as you noted, the Congress is going further in the opposite direction; they%u2019re trying to extinguish suits against telecom companies that have been successful.


Where are the FISA Stories that are working against the freedoms of Americans on this News Website!

[randynason]

Why do we need military bases in Africa, when we have so many really BIG ones in Iraq where the oil is already waiting? (sarcasm)
If Bush wants to leave an appropriate legacy for posterity, he should stay in Africa and not come back to the U.S. again.

[missingamerica]

Three hundred of Africa''s leaders are in a conference room, and they decide to take a vote on whether they should trust Bush''s assertion that he won''t militarize Africa.

"Everybody that believes Bush raise your hand."

For a moment, there is dead silence. Then, far back at the rear of the room, one lonely hand goes up.

"WHAT?!?!? You believe Bush?"

"No, I was just wondering what is for lunch."

[crusherking]

SHURCH4TRUTH, I get plenty of the pathetic here reading some of these posts. So any attack on Obama now is going to be "subtle racism"? I''d say that is in and of itself subtle racism.

[boatdocster]

One thing if for sure -

If we do start building in Africa, the bases will only be located in countries will oil reserves!!

W- Worst Ever!!

[inventagod]

If Bu$h said it - it is a lie.
...Posted by Inventagod

everything?
...Posted by jwind11

More likely than not.
...Posted by hungry1968

Everything. Bu$h is a liar.
We are putting bases in Africa, or planning to.
Watch and learn.

[jwind11]

Textbook case.....good luck when you finally decide to get treatment, it wont be easy, but you can do it....good luck!!!!