 |
| Gen. Carter Ham, head of the U.S. African command, |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Army brigade will begin sending
small teams into as many as 35 African nations early next year, part of an
intensifying Pentagon effort to train countries to battle extremists and give
the U.S. a ready and trained force to dispatch to Africa if crises requiring
the U.S. military emerge.
The teams will be limited to training and equipping
efforts, and will not be permitted to conduct military operations without
specific, additional approvals from the secretary of defense.
The sharper focus on Africa by the U.S. comes against a
backdrop of widespread insurgent violence across North Africa, and as the
African Union and other nations discuss military intervention in northern Mali.
The terror threat from al-Qaida linked groups in Africa
has been growing steadily, particularly with the rise of the extremist Islamist
sect Boko Haram in Nigeria. Officials also believe that the Sept. 11 attack on
the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which killed the ambassador and three other
Americans, may have been carried out by those who had ties to al-Qaida in the
Islamic Maghreb.
This first-of-its-kind brigade assignment — involving
teams from the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division — will target countries such
as Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger, where al-Qaida-linked groups have been
active. It also will assist nations like Kenya and Uganda that have been
battling al-Shabab militants on the front lines in Somalia.
Gen. Carter Ham, the top U.S. commander in Africa, noted
that the brigade has a small drone capability that could be useful in Africa.
But he also acknowledged that he would need special permission to tap it for
that kind of mission.
"If they want them for (military) operations, the
brigade is our first sourcing solution because they're prepared," said
Gen. David Rodriguez, the head of U.S. Army Forces Command. "But that has
to go back to the secretary of defense to get an execute order."
Already the U.S. military has plans for nearly 100
different exercises, training programs and other activities across the widely
diverse continent. But the new program faces significant cultural and language
challenges, as well as nagging questions about how many of the lower-level
enlisted members of the brigade, based in Fort Riley, Kan., will participate,
since the teams would largely be made up of more senior enlisted troops and
officers. A full brigade numbers about 3,500, but the teams could range from
just a few people to a company of about 200. In rare cases for certain
exercises, it could be a battalion, which would number about 800.
To bridge the cultural gaps with the African militaries,
the Army is reaching out across the services, the embassies and a network of
professional organizations to find troops and experts that are from some of the
African countries. The experts can be used during training, and the troops can
both advise or travel with the teams as they begin the program.
"In a very short time frame we can only teach basic
phrases," said Col. Matthew McKenna, commander of the 162nd Infantry Brigade
that will begin training the Fort Riley soldiers in March for their African
deployment. "We focus on culture and the cultural impact — how it impacts
the African countries' military and their operations."
Thomas Dempsey, a professor with the Africa Center for
Strategic Studies, said the biggest challenge will be the level of cultural,
language and historical diversity across the far-flung continent.
"How do you train for that in a way that would be
applicable wherever they go?" said Dempsey, a retired Army colonel. He
said he's not sure using a combat brigade is the right answer, but added,
"I'm not sure what the answer is. The security challenges differ so
dramatically that, to be honest, I really don't think it's feasible to have a
continental training package."
The Pentagon's effort in Africa, including the creation
of U.S. Africa Command in 2007, has been carefully calibrated, largely due to
broad misgivings across the continent that it could spawn American bases or
create the perception of an undue U.S. military influence there. As a result,
the command has been based in Stuttgart, Germany, rather than on the African
continent.
At the same time, many African nations are eager for U.S.
training or support, as they work to build their militaries, battle pirates
along the coast and shut down drug trafficking, kidnapping and other insurgent
activities.
McKenna acknowledged the challenge, but said the military
has to tap its conventional fighting forces for this task because there aren't
enough special operations forces to meet the global training needs. He said
there will be as many as a dozen different training segments between February
and September, each designed to provide tailored instruction for the particular
teams.
The mission for the 2nd Brigade — known as the
"Dagger Brigade" — will begin in the spring and will pave the way for
Army brigades to be assigned next to U.S. Pacific Command and then to U.S.
European Command over the next year. The brigade is receiving its regular
combat training first, and then will move on to the more specific instruction
needed for the deployments, such as language skills, cultural information and
other data about the African nations.
Dagger Brigade commander Col. Jeff Broadwater said the
language and culture training will be different than what most soldiers have
had in recent years, since they have focused on Pashtun and Farsi, languages
used mostly in Afghanistan and Iran. He said he expects the soldiers to learn
French, Swahili, Arabic or other languages, as well as the local cultures.
"What's really exciting is we get to focus on a
different part of the world and maintain our core combat skills,"
Broadwater said, adding that the soldiers know what to expect. "You see
those threats (in Africa) in the news all the time."
The brigade will be carved up into different teams
designed to meet the specific needs of each African nation. As the year goes
on, the teams will travel from Fort Riley to those nations — all while trying
to avoid any appearance of a large U.S. military footprint.
"The challenge we have is to always understand the
system in their country," said Rodriguez, who has been nominated to be the
next head of Africa Command. "We're not there to show them our system,
we're there to make their system work. Here is what their army looks like, and
here is what we need to prepare them to do."
Rodriguez said the nearly 100 assignments so far
requested by Ham will be carried out with "a very small footprint to get
the high payoff."
.jpg)
