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JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: HORN OF PLENTY. Western Africa is the latest frontier in Bush's "war on terror," and the Defense Department is looking to set up an African Command. The conflict in Somalia isn't helping matters. Writes Jason Motlagh:
Pentagon architects are already providing arms and expertise to a host of African "partners" to shore up porous national borders, with grander designs in the works for a new Africa Command to anchor counter-terror operations and protect at-risk oil interests. Critics warn that strengthening authoritarian regimes to consolidate power and crushing legitimate opposition on the pretext of fighting terror is a strategy that could backfire: Radicalism might surge and make enemies where they scarcely exist. Early symptoms are visible. And in no place will long-term U.S. plans encounter fiercer resistance than Somalia, where clan-based tensions -- now doused with an Islamist guerrilla war -- again threaten to plunge the country into anarchy.For more on how authoritarian regimes are benefiting from the "war on terror," check out Josh Kurlantzick's recent piece, The China Syndrome.--The Editors
