As unlikely as it may seem, U.S. officials now admit the Biden administration’s strategy of pressing Niger and other African countries to break off ties with Moscow is no longer working. What’s more impressive, perhaps, is that the story was published in Axel Springer’s Politico.
Whether or not the liberal order is preparing to chunk Joe Biden under the bus, or not, is a matter of conjecture. It is interesting, however, to read about U.S. failures in a news outlet now guided by German (or European) principles of operation. The German acquisition may be the reason for the distinction from hardcore Russophobia spewed by employees of former owner Robert Allbritton. Whatever the case, reporting that the U.S. has essentially lost a foothold on Chad, Central African Republic, Mali and Libya, and now Niger is a stunning admission.
U.S. troops will now be forced to leave Niger, according to this report and others. However, the most damning evidence my country has abused African nations comes straight from the mouth of a former CIA intelligence officer. Cameron Hudson told Politico:
“When all of these countries kicked out the French and turned inward, we then tried to pivot to become the peacemaker in the hopes that we could keep our presence there. All of that is clearly not working. We are now out. Russia is now in.”
The larger story of U.S. neoimperialism is amplified in this statement. Calmly, a CIA expert on Africa spells out how America stepped into the role of French colonialists/opportunists/pirates. He went on to mirror what we’ve been saying for years now, that African nations no longer want to be “told what to do.” Our role in Niger, in fact, across Africa and the world, could not be magnified more clearly. Politico quoted another U.S. official who punctuated this for us with his admission,
“There’s a long history of the West telling African countries how to govern, and they’re finally saying ‘enough.”
Another story from The Nation unveils the fundamental level of U.S. military presence in Africa. So, we learn that my country’s militarists stand to lose a lot more than Niger and the other few mentioned. According to author Nick Turse, U.S. taxpayers have no idea how deep and expansive the American military presence in Africa is. All across the continent, the U.S. military has laced a vast network of “bases, compounds, and other sites whose total exceeds the number of nations on the continent.” Turse’s report from 2015 quotes experts revealing how these African outposts have served the Pentagon for “transforming the continent into a laboratory for a new kind of war.” The American imperialists have eluded the public eye with many deceptions, including these sites’ classification. Instead of listing the locations as “bases,” the Pentagon calls the various sites cooperative security locations (CSLs).
Furthermore, it’s easier to understand why African nations want the United States out if we consider what’s going on underneath the ISIS and terror prevention scare tactics. According to The Nation story, an official report reveals that the Pentagon has also engaged in a corporate integration scheme. I’ll quote directly once again:
“In an effort to help its African partners cultivate their resources and further develop an organic African business infrastructure, AFRICOM is developing the Adaptive Logistics Network (ALN) initiative. ALN is a central database that documents credible African businesses and their capabilities with the intent of linking them with customers that include the U.S. military, nongovernmental organizations, contractors, and multinational corporations.”
So, in the same way the Europeans used their military presence and economic leverage to subjugate most of Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, America has been rapidly expanding its presence in the post-9/11 era. Besides being able to vet businesses and funnel success and money in the desired directions, American policy has betrayed our central ideology. The idea that democracy still exists anywhere must be examined today. Using drones based at these installations to assassinate desired targets, putting U.S. special forces on the ground wherever the Pentagon deems fit, and exacting a kind of military intimidation is just part of the schema of this “new warfare.”
On the drone issue, the Pentagon waves in front of U.S. representatives to get funding for some of these bases. The need for bases on African soil is a lie. Even the MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers have enough range to hit anything from the seas and oceans surrounding the continent. Now, we have the Orion UAS, which can carry a payload of 2,600 pounds, including wing-mounted munitions. This drone has a range of over 9,000 miles. And, of course, Raytheon and other military-industrial complex businesses win billions from such weapons systems.
Finally, the desperation with which we see the Biden Administration handling Ukraine or the Palestinian situation makes more sense if we consider the decline of empires. Africa is throwing out the Americans and Europeans. Latin America is just a little behind. My country’s presence in Asia would be meaningless without Japan, Australia, and Taiwan. India is already a BRICS nation, gravitating closer and closer to Russia and the multipolar order. Iran is a target now, mainly because the country is now a BRICS nation that will finally emerge from decades of oppressive isolation. The Middle East is, for the most part, fed up with Israel’s exceptionalism/fascism. The UAE becoming a BRICS bears special significance here. Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Africa are already BRICS countries.
For U.S. officials to admit failure on the scale of losing all influence in Africa means the Biden administration has nearly ended America’s influence worldwide—at least, this is my opinion. Washington just threw another $90 billion into unwinnable wars and uprisings, which is the final nail in the coffins of the current parties in the U.S. capital. The people of America and the world are not ready but begging for something new.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.