USS Theodore Roosevelt
"The United States military has become more involved in a range of activities that in the past were perceived to be the exclusive province of civilian agencies and organizations. This has led to concern ... about what's seen as a creeping "militarization" of some aspects of America's foreign policy. This is not an entirely unreasonable sentiment."
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates
Today's launch of United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) sees Carrier Strike Group 2 blockading Cape Town from October 4, 2008 — reinforcing AFRICOM's mission, i.e. "... military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. foreign policy." [Mission statement May 2008]
Look, I've nothing against the group or its 7,300 complement, off on a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean "...in support of maritime security". I do have issues with them being used as banner ads for AFRICOM's commission — not that the time of their 'visit' and today's initiation of the US's invasion of Africa has been commented on by our dumber-than-deadwood media.
A year to the day after the USS Forest Sherman's visit to Cape Town — following that of NATO task force SNMG1 headed by the Triconderoga-class cruiser USS Normandy (CG60), the docking of the TR (CVN71) support-cruiser USS Monterey (CG61) and several other ships will send a signal my old friend Thomas PM Barnett would be proud to hear:
"The Americans have landed. For real"
Carrier Strike Group 2
And they will have done so in deed rather than — as is usually the case, in word. The strike group includes a 50,000-ton combat support ship, three Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers The Sullivans, Mason, and Nitze, as well as the nuclear attack submarine USS Springfield.
The media’s been silent on the last vessel. Staying out to sea (under cover, so to speak)?
Never mind. There are many more dangerous things hovering offshore. The USS Theodore Roosevelt's Carrier Air Wing Eight consists of strike fighter squadrons VFA-15, VFA-31, VFA-87 and VFA-213; tactical electronics warfare squadron VAQ-141; carrier airborne early warning squadron VAW-124; and helicopter anti-submarine squadron HS-3. That makes some 90 aircraft in all — about as many as we have in the South African Air Force.
Do we really need these people? I mean, what the hell are we doing with our frigates? This Strike Group, armed for Armageddon, is not out to hunt Somali pirates. It's positioning itself for a possible war with Iran.
So the contagion spreads. May the visiting Chilean tall ship Esmeralda restore us to sanity.
"In Africa, where the State Department and USAID are deeply involved in administering a range of major foreign assistance programs, the Defense Department is working to ensure that its new regional command, AFRICOM, supports and complements our civilian-led initiatives. We are pleased that DoD is giving senior leadership positions within AFRICOM to State Department officials, positioning them well to advise the command on appropriate courses of action."
John D. Negroponte
As CNN's Jack Cafferty observed after Sarah Palin's one on one with Katie Couric: "If that doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should."
Note: Three decades after the event, I stumbled on to Steve Dutch's amazing site. It boasts myriad photographs of 1976's Operation Sail, an armada of tall ships and military vessels packed into New York Bay to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial.
If the bright light beneath those fireworks is Lady Liberty, that was our mooring. Back home, in Soweto and countless other places, schoolkids were being gunned down by the cops. At least 800 were to die.
At one stage during the ceremonial review, I got close enough to Dick Cheney to shoot him. If only I knew then what I now know.
As kids, we had a great time in New York, out-drinking all nationalities and visiting as many parts of Manhattan as possible — including the remarkable tall ships lining the Hudson. In fact, I remember the Dar Parmorza well, having been dragged down to visit it by a drunken Polack in the Marek J. Maybe Elvis mould.
I trust ... nay hope, given global antipathy to the U.S. military, those sailing with Carrier Strike Group 2 find Cape Town as welcoming, warm, and friendly as we found New Yorkers to be some thirty-two years ago.
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